THE DAS ARE STILL WRONG

In An Appeal To Assembly Speaker Silver, They Hope To Prevent Needed Drug
Law Reform

In a 14-page letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan,
Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney decries proposed reform
of the state's Rockefeller Drug Laws as a "recipe for disaster" that would
"free thousands of violent and predatory drug dealers and undermine
existing programs for the treatment of drug addicts."

Mr. Carney, who wrote the letter in his capacity as president of the New
York State District Attorneys Association, knows how to argue like a good
prosecutor. But prosecutors are, by virtue of their office, one-sided. A
far better argument can be made on behalf of reform.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws have had 27 years to prove themselves as
effective deterrents to drug crime. But they have failed miserably. They
were touted as the toughest in the nation and the scourge of drug kingpins,
who faced mandatory 15-year-to-life sentences. But today drug crime
continues to plague New York state, and drug kingpins have little to fear
from the Rockefeller statutes. The record shows that the small-time
dealers, the first offenders, the nonviolent, have suffered
disproportionately under these laws. The kingpins, by and large, have walked.

The record -- the one with a human face -- speaks for itself. In December
of 2000, Gov. Pataki granted clemency to five New Yorkers sentenced under
the Rockefeller laws for low-level drug crimes. Four of them, all women,
had been convicted for possession, not sale, of drugs. All had received
sentences of 15 years to life. All were exemplary prisoners who had
improved the lives of their fellow inmates.

Mr. Pataki's action came after state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno,
R-Brunswick, had appealed for clemency for the four women in July of 1999.
They were all first-time nonviolent offenders. No kingpins.

In December of 1997, Gov. Pataki commuted the sentences of three other
prisoners who had been serving long terms under the Rockefeller drug laws.
One was Angela Thompson, convicted in 1989 at the age of 17 for selling two
ounces of cocaine at the behest of her uncle, a known drug dealer. In the
parlance of the drug trade, she was a mule, not a kingpin. The judge didn't
want to impose such a harsh sentence on a 17-year-old first time,
nonviolent offender. But under the Rockefeller laws, she had no choice. The
sentence was 15 years to life.

These cases, and many more, do not fit Mr. Carney's profile of violent
predatory drug dealers who would flood the streets if the Rockefeller drug
laws were reformed or, better yet, repealed. But prosecutors like these
laws because they can be used as a club to wrest plea bargains from
defendants. There's no doubt about that. There's also no doubt about what
the proper use of the law should be. The law shouldn't be used as anyone's
club. It should be used to make punishment fit the crime. And the
Rockefeller drug laws don't. They never have.