10 YEARS FOR GROWING POT

Has Justice Been Served?

Some stories so dramatically illustrate the shortcomings of our criminal
justice system that they take your breath away. The prosecution of Miguel
Mendoza Palominos, as recounted by The Bee's Denny Walsh, is such a story.

Palominos, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, was convicted
recently in federal court of growing 1,000 marijuana plants. His guilt is
not in question.

According to his attorney, Palominos, who is illiterate, grew up in extreme
poverty in Mexico. He never attended school and spent his childhood begging
for food on the streets. Lured to the United States with promises of a job
in agriculture, he was taken to remote Tehama County, where he was put to
work watering marijuana plants. He was there only two months when he was
caught in a raid. The lowliest cog in a huge marijuana growing operation,
he was the only one apprehended. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Judge
William Shubb had minimal discretion. Because of the huge number of plants
involved and the fact that deputies found a semi-automatic pistol in
Palominos' backpack, Shubb was required to sentence him to 10 years in
prison for conduct that he noted, "the majority of the people in California
believe should be legalized."

Palominos' youth, his lack of sophistication, the fact that he had never
even gotten paid or that he was looking for a way to feed his mother and
sisters back in Mexico didn't matter. Nor did it matter that the principals
in the crime, the people who exploited Palominos, were never caught, that
they are free to plant new gardens.

Certainly what Palominos did was wrong and deserving of punishment. Illegal
pot farms have turned California wilderness areas into war zones. The
criminals guarding hidden marijuana groves endanger the public. Palominos
was armed.

Still, it's hard to see how locking a poor, desperate youth from Mexico
away for 10 years while the principals in the operation go free helps solve
the problem or advances justice. It's hard to understand how it will deter
the next desperate illegal immigrant from being lured north to water pot
plants.