MORGY LETTING DRUGGIES SKIP ROCKY ROAD

Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau has made no secret of
his wish that the state's harsh Rockefeller-era drug laws be changed.

But for 10 years, the legal legend quietly has sidestepped the rigid
drug statutes - allowing some first-time offenders to plead guilty to
lesser crimes to avoid lengthy, mandated prison stints, he revealed
yesterday.

In the last 20 months, only 14% of the 1,806 people charged in
Manhattan with B-level drug felonies were hit with state prison
sentences, Morgenthau said. The rest were ordered into treatment
programs or got shorter jail terms.

"There are circumstances warranting a reduced sentence in so many of
these cases that it is difficult to justify a mandatory minimum for
defendants who have no prior felony convictions," Morgenthau said. "We
permit more than 80% of such defendants . . . to plead guilty to
reduced charges."

State lawmakers have talked for years about reforming the
controversial drug laws. The mandatory sentencing statutes, enacted in
1973, force judges to send offenders convicted of selling 2 ounces or
possessing 4 ounces of a narcotic to prison for 15 years to life -
regardless of their criminal history.

As Albany lawmakers met again yesterday to negotiate changes,
Morgenthau urged them to ease the penalties for first-time offenders -
but get tougher with drug kingpins. The mandatory prison terms for
B-level felony drug offenders should be scrapped, and judges should
get more discretion to order first-time offenders into treatment
programs, he said.

Morgenthau, the state's most senior prosecutor, also said judges
should be allowed to hand down sentences with fixed terms of
imprisonment. When judges give a range of prison time, Morgenthau
said, "the actual time served is determined by other agencies that
usually function out of the public eye."