ICE PUTS HEAT ON GUN-TOTING FELONS

Tough Federal Penalties Target Drug Dealers, Fugitives

Federal prosecutors are hoping to see a meltdown in violent crime by
turning up the heat on felons caught carrying guns.

A 3-year initiative started in Alabama's Northern District known as
Project ICE, or Isolating the Criminal Element is spreading across the
state under a new spin-off strategy called Alabama ICE.

The renewed prosecution of criminals violating gun laws is part of a
nationwide push by the U.S. Justice Department through the program,
Project Safe Neighborhoods, to reduce violence involving guns across
the country.

"We're not going to let people who cannot lawfully possess guns have
them," said U.S. Attorney Alice Martin. "We're going to apply federal
law and seek hard time."

Felons, fugitives, illegal aliens, drug dealers and those convicted of
domestic abuse cannot possess guns. When nabbed under the ICE program,
they will face prosecution in federal court, where sentencing
guidelines kick in and bring harsher time through existing federal
laws. Gun-toting criminals could face up to five years in prison if
convicted.

There has been a 12 percent jump nationally in the number of gun crime
prosecutions since the start of fiscal year 2002, according to Justice
Department statistics released last week.

The rise in prosecutions nationally mirrors the increase in Alabama's
Northern District. In 2001, 124 defendants were indicted under the ICE
crackdown. In 2002, 183 people have been indicted so far. The federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also has targeted gun
traffickers through the program, which also works to reduce the number
of firearms on the street.

Last week, eight people, mainly Birmingham residents, were named in an
eight-count indictment charging them with trafficking guns to Chicago
gang members. A grand jury last month indicted three Huntsville men on
charges that they bought guns from a firearms dealer in Hazel Green,
tampered with the serial numbers and sold the guns to buyers in
Alabama and New York.

"We will not allow Alabama to become a supply state for northern crime
guns," Martin said.

Martin said ICE also targets adults who provide juveniles with
handguns. The goal, Martin said, is to coat the state with Alabama
ICE.

"It's a saturation effort on all fronts to say we know we can make a
difference and this is how we are going to do it," she said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Montgomery announced its first
conviction last month when a man accused of firing the shot that
struck a 4-year-old girl pleaded guilty to a federal charge of being a
felon in possession of a firearm.

Martin said Alabama ICE goes beyond prosecuting criminals. It provides
outreach programs, including educating the public, mapping crime in
the community and training law enforcement officers to trace guns and
bullets found at crime scenes or randomly tossed in ditches. She said
assistance also will be offered to schools to make sure they remain
gun-free.

Defense attorney Mike Hanle expressed concern that the renewed ICE
program could be an easy way for prosecutors to drive their
convictions rates up.

Rick Burgess, who secured a not-guilty conviction for an ICE suspect,
said he is fearful the program could open the door for harsher
sentences for the average person who has a prior conviction in
comparison to the dangerous, hard-core criminal.

"There's nothing wrong with it's overall goal," Burgess said. "In
application, there is sort of a degree of unfairness."

But Martin said the typical ICE case involves a defendant with two
felony convictions.

"In many of these ice cases, the defendants have drugs on them,"
Martin said. "This is thug control. We don't consider it gun control."