EX-FBI CHIEF: RELAX DEL. DRUG SENTENCE LAWS

House Bill Would Repeal 'Mandatory Minimums'

Louis J. Freeh, the nation's former top cop and a self-described "law
enforcement guy," is leading an effort in Delaware to repeal state
laws that require minimum prison terms for convicted drug offenders.

"Some people told me I'd be one of the last people they thought
they'd see" pushing this initiative, said Freeh, who was FBI director
from 1993 to 2001 and then served as general counsel to the former
MBNA credit card bank until 2005.

Freeh, of Greenville, a former federal judge, agreed to become
chairman of Stand Up for What Is Right and Just late last year. The
7-year-old organization supports legislation in the General Assembly
that calls for an end to Delaware's mandatory minimum drug sentencing
laws. House Bill 71 is expected to come up for debate in the House today.

Board members of SURJ (pronounced "surge") include some prominent
Delaware lawyers and jurists, including Edmund N. "Ned" Carpenter II
and retired Supreme Court Justice Joseph T. Walsh. Former Delaware
Attorney General Charles M. Oberly III is a trustee of the
organization. The group of about 3,100 people includes leaders from
government, churches, business, labor and nonprofit organizations.

Freeh said he got involved with SURJ based, in part, on his
experience as a federal judge. He recalled having to sentence
20-year-old offenders who were drug users -- but not dealers -- to
nearly two years in prison.

"And they will come out hardened" by the prison system, Freeh said.

Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law,
who is familiar with Freeh as a former assistant U.S. attorney and
federal judge for the Southern District of New York, said he is seen
as a moderate in criminal justice circles.

Freeh's willingness to make public statements on the repeal of
minimum sentencing laws will be effective opposition to
tough-on-crime advocates, Gillers said.

"It will probably annoy some of his former colleagues," Gillers said.
Gillers said he knows people in the law enforcement community and
anti-drug organizations who disagree with Freeh's stance.

Sentences said to help police

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden has said he is against the
repeal. State Prosecutor Richard Andrews testified before the House
Judiciary Committee in late February that the threat of a mandatory
minimum sentence can help police investigators get additional
information about illegal drug trafficking.

"The attorney general does agree with the state prosecutor's earlier
testimony that the threat of mandatory minimums is a valuable tool
that aids police in obtaining additional information from suspects,"
according to Jason Miller, spokesman for the Delaware Department of Justice.

The Delaware Police Chiefs Council also favors minimum sentences,
saying the system provides equal sentencing regardless of social
standing or race.

Bruce Green, a former New York assistant federal prosecutor and now
director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham
University School of Law, said people with Freeh's "knowledge and
credibly ought to weigh in" on these issues.

"He obviously, in the course of all the work he's done, developed
well-informed views, and he's now in a position to speak," Green said.

Former Gov. Dale Wolf, who was the chairman of SURJ before Freeh, agrees.

"Just the fact that Louis has enough interest in a local issue and is
willing to take the leadership shows his commitment," Wolf said.

Carpenter, a retired trial lawyer, said Freeh's involvement is
important because it shows that law enforcement is not unanimous on
the issue of mandatory minimum sentences.

Tiny amounts can make difference

Under Delaware's mandatory minimum sentencing laws for drug offenses,
a quantity of an illegal substance equivalent to a few packets of
artificial sweetener can be enough to trigger a minimum prison
sentence, Freeh wrote in a letter in support of H.B. 71.

"Take one [packet] away and no mandatory minimum applies," Freeh
wrote. "Add one and an addict faces a long term of imprisonment."

In a strong and robust judicial system, judges have the authority to
craft sentences on a case-by-case basis, he said. Now, prosecutors
are making the decision, upsetting the balance of power, Freeh said.

Freeh said the rationale when such laws were enacted in the late
1970s was to put drug kingpins out of business. But more than two
decades later, it's clear that hasn't worked, he said.

"Drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before, and
America's prison population has tripled to more than 2.1 million," Freeh wrote.

In Delaware, the prison and jail population has more than quadrupled
in the last 25 years, Freeh wrote. The cost to support the rising
prison population has soared to more than $200 million a year.

"Still, drug use has not declined and our communities are not safer,"
Freeh wrote.

Wolf said about 19 states have repealed or restructured mandatory
minimums for drug crimes. Michigan, whose laws were considered among
the toughest in the country, repealed its statutes in 2003.

Three people on each side of the issue -- those opposed to current
mandatory minimums and those in favor of them -- are expected to
testify before the House today, according to House spokesman Joseph Fulgham.

Freeh is traveling and will not be available to speak. But Carpenter,
who plans to speak, said passage of H.B. 71 would make Delaware a
leader in the removal of "cookie-cutter justice."

"It will really improve the administration of criminal justice in
Delaware," Carpenter said.