Helen J. Frye

Helen Jackson Frye (December 10, 1930 – April 21, 2011) was an American judge and attorney in the state of Oregon. She served as a judge of the Oregon Circuit Court and later as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Early life

Helen Jackson was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon on December 10, 1930, the daughter of Elizabeth (Kirkpatrick) and Earl Jackson. She grew up on a potato and grain farm in Klamath County. Her father died when she was three, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents from age three to nine while her mother and sibling recovered from tuberculosis. Her mother remarried and they moved from the family farm. In 1961, Frye earned a Master of Arts at the University of Oregon. She graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1966 with a Juris Doctor.

Legal career After passing the bar in 1966 she entered private legal practice in Eugene, and worked for her husband, who was the district attorney for Lane County. Rogers was sent to the Oregon State Hospital, was released on December 12, 1974, and then went on to kill several women before being sent to death row. In 1992, she was the trial court level judge for Kyllo v. United States, an unlawful search case that made it to the United States Supreme Court in 2001.

Later years and death Frye was awarded the Meritorious Service Award from the University of Oregon School of Law in 2000. Helen Frye died on April 21, 2011, in Portland, Oregon.