DRUG LAW DILEMMA

The Need to Reform the Rockefeller Statutes Is Once Again Made Painfully Clear

Albany County sheriff's investigators acted responsibly and compassionately
last week in handling a drug case that had all the markings of a set-up
designed to take advantage of an unsuspecting teenager.

The case involves a mentally disabled Brooklyn youth who was apparently
recruited as a "mule" to transport a shipment of heroin from New York City
to Albany. The youth was stopped by authorities after he left the bus
terminal in Albany and boarded a taxi. It quickly became apparent to
sheriff's investigators that the suspect, who is being held as a juvenile
until authorities can decide how to proceed with his case, was duped by
other teens accompanying him who were shrewd enough to avoid giving police
a reason to arrest them.

Because of the unusual circumstances, the case has attracted wide news
coverage. But it is also noteworthy for the questions it raises about New
York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws: What if the sheriff's investigators
weren't so enlightened? What if the youth were charged and convicted under
the Rockefeller statutes? He would be facing a 15-year-to-life term, even
if the judge wanted to lessen the punishment in view of the extenuating
circumstances.

The Rockefeller drug laws are flawed not only because they impose unjustly
harsh sentences, but also because they deny judges the discretion to make
the punishment fit the crime. A conviction leads to mandatory sentences.

The laws were intended to end drug crime in New York state, but they
haven't come close to achieving that goal since they were passed in 1973.
Instead, drug king-pins -- the ones who should be behind bars for long
periods -- avoid the laws by recruiting low-level runners, or mules, to ply
their trade. As a result, New York's prisons are filling up with
first-time, nonviolent offenders who ran out of luck while running drugs.
All the while, the king-pins remain free.

Regrettably, the state Legislature has failed to reform these laws, largely
because of pressure from district attorneys who want to use them as tools
to extract plea bargains. But these laws should not be used to pressure the
accused into making a deal. They should be reformed to give judges the
discretion to decide each case on its merits.

It's all well and good that sheriff's investigators have done just that in
the latest case. But that was just one instance in one community. It is far
from a solution, or a reform.