FARMER FORCED TO RETURN TO PRISON

Lenient Sentence Overridden On Charges Of Growing Marijuana

About 19 months ago, a Madisonville farmer completed a federal prison
sentence for manufacturing marijuana. Since then, he's worked odd jobs and
helped take care of his elderly father, while serving his supervised
release, his lawyer said.

But Jackson C. "Jack" O'Dell III, 54, will be going back to prison to serve
what a federal appeals court says is the sentence U.S. District Judge Leon
Jordan should have imposed originally.

Jordan resentenced O'Dell on Tuesday to a five-year prison term - the
minimum term required by law for the marijuana offense. The judge
originally sentenced O'Dell to an 18-month prison term in July 1999.

But in April, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Jordan improperly
found that O'Dell had cooperated enough with authorities to benefit from a
provision in federal sentencing guidelines that allows sentences lower than
the minimum mandated by statute.

While O'Dell will get credit for the 18 months he's already spent in
prison, Jordan said it wasn't up to him whether O'Dell could also be
credited for the time he has been serving his supervised release.

"Based on the mandate of the 6th Circuit, this court is limited to sentence
Mr. O'Dell to the minimum mandatory (term)," Jordan said. "I'm aware of the
fact that he's served 18 months already and he's served 19 months on
supervised release and those records are available to the (U.S.) Bureau of
Prisons."

Defense attorney Herbert S. Moncier had asked Jordan for the supervised
release credit. He also argued sending O'Dell back to prison violated his
client's due process rights and the right to be free from cruel and unusual
punishment.

Moncier argued it wasn't right that O'Dell pay the price for relying on the
advice of his lawyer and the ruling of a federal judge.

"He's the one who walks back to Manchester, Kentucky," Moncier said,
referring to the federal prison where O'Dell served his 18 months.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Cook argued there wasn't anything cruel
or unusual about O'Dell serving a prison term mandated by law, especially
when compared to some drug offenses that carry much stiffer penalties.

Authorities began investigating O'Dell's involvement in drug trafficking in
August 1991, executing search warrants at a 171-acre farm in Monroe County
and at O'Dell's Madisonville home on Aug. 15. They found more than 200
marijuana plants being cultivated in three rooms of a barn.

Although O'Dell admitted that day that the plants were his, a series of
plea negotiations, appeals, changes in the law, questions about whether
O'Dell's father and sons were involved with the illegal activity, disputes
over who owned the barn and more appeals dragged the case out for years.
Jordan has previously noted it is the longest criminal case he had dealt
with in his career.

Cook also told Jordan that the evidence indicates O'Dell was also involved
in a substantial cocaine-trafficking operation prior to his 1991 arrest.

"I'm sympathetic towards him (O'Dell)," Jordan said in denying Moncier's
motion regarding cruel and unusual punishment.