FOR MERCY'S SAKE

Clinton Should Commute Draconian Drug Sentences.

By pardoning two low-level nonviolent drug offenders in the last few days,
President Clinton has moved appropriately to soften the injustice of the
nation's unjust mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. There are scores more
languishing in federal prison who deserve to have their sentences commuted.

Approved by Congress in the mid-1980s, mandatory-minimum sentencing laws
require judges to impose lengthy prison sentences on criminals convicted of
drug offenses. Some sentenced under the law are the dangerous drug kingpins
that Congress intended to target, but many others, defense attorneys say
and the vast majority of federal judges agree, are bit players. Many are
women who simply got snared in a boyfriend's drug operation.

The mandatory-minimum sentencing laws ignore many meaningful distinctions:
a drug defendant's minor role in the crime; the absence of any past
criminal record; the fact that more culpable crime partners received
lighter sentences because they were able to cut deals with prosecutors by
fingering higher-ups in a drug enterprise. None of those mitigating factors
matter. Under the law, federal judges must impose harsh penalties based
solely on the amount and type of drug involved.

Unlike Leonard Peltier, the Indian activist convicted of murdering two FBI
agents in 1975 whose clemency bid has gotten high profile attention in
recent weeks, these low-level drug offenders asking for mercy have no
history of violence. They have killed no one.

Noting that 2000 is a Jubilee year -- a 50th year in both the Jewish and
Christian tradition when debts are forgiven and prisoners freed -- more
than 675 clergy have written to ask the president to free nonviolent drug
offenders. Some 24,000 federal inmates meet this description. The president
cannot and should not free them all, but he should free some.

Eric Sterling, president of the Washington-based Criminal Justice Policy
Foundation and a leading clemency advocate, advises the president to appeal
to federal judges for help: "Ask them to send him the name of one or two of
the cases that they lost sleep over because the sentence the judge was
forced to impose was egregious." That seems a sensible first step.

The president should also consult prison authorities and federal
prosecutors for clemency candidate recommendations. It's hard to imagine a
better way to for Clinton to end his presidency than by dispensing a bit of
mercy and fairness.