MANDATORY SENTENCE SWEEPS UP EVERYONE

A reader critical of a recent News Journal editorial recommending
abolishment of Delaware's mandatory minimum drug laws responded by
proclaiming that such statutes apply only to predatory drug dealers.

Contrary to what this reader believes, Delaware's mandatory minimum
laws do cast a much wider net, often including people who possess
illegal drugs for personal use.

More significantly, the danger of mandatory minimum sentences is that
judges are stripped of their role as a check and balance in the
criminal justice system.

In the drug game, one size does not fit all. If relieved of the
straitjacket of mandatory minimum sentences, Delaware should have
confidence that our nationally acclaimed judiciary will be able to
craft an appropriate sentence in each case, distinguishing predatory
drug dealers from the corner tout supporting his own habit; from the
first-time offender acting as a courier, the single indigent mother
who surrenders her house to intimidating drug dealers, or a carload
of friends in possession of a half-ounce of cocaine for personal use.

Although everyone recognizes the enormous challenge in combating the
illegal drug trade and related violence that plagues communities, it
has become abundantly clear that we cannot punish our way out of the
crime problem, particularly with dehumanizing mandatory minimum sentences.

Thomas A. Foley, Esq.,

Wilmington