COURT OVERTURNS SENTENCE OF LIFE

The life sentence received two years ago by one of Billings' most
notorious drug dealers was overturned Wednesday by the U.S. 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals.

Pedro Hernandez, 43, who a Billings judge found put more than a ton
of marijuana on streets here, will be returned here for resentencing.

His convictions on the 18-count conspiracy indictment still stand,
but recent Supreme Court and 9th Circuit decisions raised questions
about the constitutionality of Hernandez's sentence. Courts have held
that a jury, not a judge, must decide beyond a reasonable doubt any
facts that could increase a penalty beyond statutory limits.

It's a by-product of a somewhat confusing federal sentencing process.
Federal criminal laws include statutory penalties for various crimes.
But the length of a sentence is determined by complex sentencing
guidelines that take into consideration several factors. The amount
of drugs involved in a conspiracy case is one of those factors.

Until recently, prosecutors only had to prove that there was a
conspiracy and that drugs were involved. The judge, with the help of
probation officers, determined the amount of drugs the defendant was
responsible for and fashioned a sentence accordingly. Sometimes those
sentences exceed the statutory maximum.

Court decisions have held that for an increase in the maximum
sentence, the amount of drugs must be found beyond a reasonable doubt
by a jury, not by the less demanding standard of a judge using it as
a sentencing factor.

When Hernandez and his co-conspirators were sentenced in June 1999,
none of these rulings applied. In overturning Hernandez's sentence,
the 9th Circuit found that the jury was expressly instructed that the
government was not required to prove the quantity of drugs involved.

Hernandez's co-defendants, Frank Jesus Rodriguez, Jose Ramon
Laprada-Revino and Hernandez's wife, Roberta, also appealed their
sentences. Although their sentences were also based on the judge's
finding that they had been responsible for more than 1,000 kilos of
marijuana, the error was considered harmless in their cases.
Sentences they received on other charges were not erroneous, the
judges said, and their total sentences did not exceed the statutory
maximum for offenses they were convicted of committing.