WILLIAMS FILES APPEAL, CHALLENGES DRUG LAW

In an appeal filed Tuesday, attorneys for Jessica Williams took aim
at the state law that prohibits drivers from having certain illegal
drugs in their system.

Jurors relied upon the law when they convicted Williams in the March
2000 accident on Interstate 15 that killed six teens assigned to a
county work crew.

In documents filed Tuesday with the Nevada Supreme Court, attorneys
John Watkins and Ellen Bezian contend the law is unconstitutional.
The attorneys said that, although legislators intended to advance
traffic safety when they passed the legislation in 1999, the law
targets people with low levels of marijuana who do not present a
threat to traffic safety.

"Clearly, the public has absolutely no legitimate interest in
prosecuting unimpaired drivers for DUI," the attorneys wrote.

District Judge Mark Gibbons ruled the law constitutional after
hearing testimony in an evidentiary hearing last year. The Nevada
Supreme Court has yet to rule on the law's constitutionality.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said he had not seen the
documents the defense filed Tuesday. But the prosecutor said Gibbons
carefully considered the more than 60 motions filed in the Williams
case.

"Everything has been litigated. We are confident that the judge made
the right decisions, and she had more than a fair trial," Booker said.

Six teen-agers assigned to a Clark County youth offenders work crew
were killed when a Ford minivan driven by Williams drifted into the
median of I-15 near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Those killed were
Anthony Smith, 14; Scott Garner Jr., 14; Alberto Puig, 16; Maleyna
Stoltzfus, 15; Rebeccah Glicken, 15; and Jennifer Booth, 16.

In her appeal, Williams contends that Gibbons erred when he
prohibited the defense from arguing that Clark County's negligence
contributed to the six deaths.

Defense attorneys also said their case was improperly damaged by the
failure of Associated Pathologists Laboratories to refrigerate
Williams' blood samples after testing them shortly after the
accident. The laboratory found the blood contained marijuana levels
in excess of the limits permitted under the law.

A defense expert retested the blood earlier this year and detected
far lower levels of marijuana. However, the defense expert did find
illegal amounts of a marijuana component that does not contribute to
the smoker's feeling of intoxication.

On cross-examination, prosecutors impeached the expert's findings by
noting that marijuana levels tend to decrease over time when a blood
sample is not refrigerated. In its appeal, the defense said the state
should not have been permitted to benefit from the failure to
preserve evidence.

Williams is serving a sentence of 18 to 48 years in prison for her
conviction on six counts of driving with a prohibited substance in
the blood.