FORSYTH DA WILL ALSO TRY NEW LAW

Anti-Terrorism Statute May Fight Meth Labs

Frustrated by drug laws that he thought were not tough enough on
methamphetamine producers, prosecutor Jerry Wilson decided to examine
the books.

Wilson, the district attorney for Watauga County, and members of his
staff started flipping through legal texts and precedents in the past
few weeks until they found what they were looking for - a law with
more teeth.

Instead of a drug law, though, Wilson turned to the state's
antiterrorism laws when prosecuting accused methamphetamine producers.
The laws, specifically a statute passed in November 2001, detail the
penalties for manufacturing a nuclear or chemical weapon. Wilson's
office filed what are believed to be the first charges using that law
last week.

'We sat down and began looking for something more that we could use as
a weapon against these people, and that's the statute we found,'
Wilson said.

Since Wilson's decision other prosecutors have followed his lead and
said that they will also prosecute methamphetamine producers under
antiterrorism laws.

'The policy now will be that we will put B1 felonies on anyone having
anything to do with methamphetamines. These things are very
dangerous,' said Tom Keith, the district attorney in Forsyth County.

B1 felonies carry sentences ranging from 12 years to life in
prison.

The first person who will be prosecuted under the antiterrorism laws
is Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, of Todd. Miller was arrested July 11 and
was charged with two counts of manufacturing a nuclear or chemical
weapon, in connection with charges relating to methamphetamine
production.Even if Miller were convicted of the most serious drug
charge against him, he might have served only six months in prison,
Wilson said.

To link the drug's production to chemical weapons, prosecutors
referred to the toxic and combustible nature of the chemicals involved
in methamphetamine production. They said that police officers and
firemen who respond to calls involving the drug are at risk of serious
injury, including lung damage.

Keith said he decided to use the antiterrorism laws after a visit last
week to Ashe County, where he talked to drug-enforcement officials.

He said that the use of the antiterrorism law to stop the growth of
methamphetamine laboratories is necessary to prevent problems that
have plagued other states, including neighboring Tennessee.

'We're not going to let them get a foothold,' Keith said. 'If we catch
them, we want to take their life away, put them away for as long as we
can.'

In explaining his decision to use the antiterrorism law, Wilson called
the current statute 'woefully insufficient to address the epidemic of
clandestine methamphetamine laboratories that Watauga County is
experiencing.' The county has had 24 labs raided this year.

Several defense lawyers, however, reacted to the news that prosecutors
would use antiterrorism laws with a mix of skepticism and concern for
the rights of the accused.

'It seems to me to be a real stretch of the imagination, that this
would be covered under the antiterrorism law,' said Wallace Harrelson,
the public defender in Guilford County. 'It seems to me that the
antiterrorism law was designed with a specific purpose in mind, to
prosecute people who are threatening to hurt the safety of the general
public.'

Harrelson and others also said that they doubted whether a judge would
allow prosecution under the law for drug-related activity that does
not terrorize the public.

The law defines nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass
destruction as, in part, 'any substance that is designed or has the
capability to cause death or serious injury and ... is or contains
toxic or poisonous chemicals or their immediate precursors.'

Pete Clary, the public defender in Forsyth County, said that Wilson
might be overstepping his bounds as a prosecutor.

'I think it's up to the legislature to decide whether the law is
'woefully insufficient," Clary said. 'The DA is charged with
enforcing the laws on the books, not as he wishes they were.'

Wilson said that despite the legislature's intent in passing the law
just two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the text of the
law is on his side.

'I understand the title of the statue is antiterrorism, but the
statute is much more broad than that,' Wilson said. 'There's nothing
in the statute that requires any organized terrorist effort. There's
nothing in the statute that requires that these chemicals be used as a
weapon.'

Keith said that the General Assembly has been slow in responding to an
influx of drug manufacturers, and that legislators are hesitant to add
prisoners to already-burgeoning prisons.

'I've probably got eight or 10 bills before the legislature,' Keith
said. 'It is extremely difficult, with all the defense attorneys in
the General Assembly, to get tougher bills passed when they also have
to vote on prisons.'

Though they did not go as far as Keith in promising to prosecute
methamphetamine producers under antiterrorism laws, district attorneys
Stuart Albright of Guilford County and Garry Frank of Davidson County
said they would consider such action if the facts of a case warranted
it.

'He's a wonderful DA up in that neck up the woods, and the facts
must've warranted the charge,' Albright said of Wilson's decision.

Albright also expressed confidence that the charge would hold up at
trial.

'The person will either plead guilty, or we'll have a trial and a
judge and jury will look at the case,' he said. 'Certainly I don't
know how a DA could take their discretion too far if they either plead
guilty or they're found guilty.'