CLEMENCY ENDS DRUG TERM FOR DISABLED MAN

Terrence Stevens won executive clemency Friday from Gov. George E. Pataki
in an act that can be seen as both an early Christmas present for a
severely disabled man and a case that reflects the harshness of the
Rockefeller drug laws, a former Buffalo attorney of his suggested Saturday.

Even the judge who sentenced Stevens in 1993 backed his clemency bid.

"I don't think he was deserving of a 15-to-life sentence," said now-retired
Erie County Judge John V. Rogowski, noting that Stevens was guilty of a
nonviolent crime. "He was, in a sense, a pawn of someone higher up."

Rogowski was forced to sentence Stevens to the longer prison term because
of state law that Rockefeller sponsored when he was governor.

Pataki, observing an annual holiday tradition from the governor's office,
granted executive clemency Friday to Stevens, 34, and four women serving
similarly long prison terms for nonviolent drug possession charges.

All five will be eligible for release next month, pending approval from
state parole boards.

"It's a classic case where the Rockefeller drug laws imposed an extremely
unfair sentence on somebody," defense attorney James P. Harrington said
Saturday. "He (Stevens) was involved to a certain degree, but not to the
extent that would merit a sentence of 15 years to life."

Rogowski, who wrote to the clemency board on Stevens' behalf, said he was
elated to read Saturday about the governor's granting of executive clemency.

Stevens and another man, who later became a police informant, were arrested
in February 1990 at the downtown Buffalo bus terminal in possession of
about a quarter-pound of cocaine. Stevens later was convicted of cocaine
possession and conspiracy.

In March 1993, Rogowski sentenced Stevens to the minimum possible sentence,
15 years to life, after saying that Stevens was "less involved" in the plot
than a former state trooper accused of masterminding the drug deal. The
former trooper was sentenced to 20 years to life.

At the time, Harrington called the life sentence "cruel and unusual
punishment" for Stevens.

Stevens, who grew up in a New York City housing project and has muscular
dystrophy, already used a wheelchair when he was arrested in 1990. He has
lived in a cellblock for disabled prisoners in Green Haven Correctional
Facility, where he receives physical therapy and extra care from nurses and
fellow inmates.

"It's been an extraordinarily difficult situation for him (in prison)
because of his physical problems," Harrington said.

While Harrington hailed the executive clemency for Stevens, he also said it
was clear that it wouldn't have been granted if Stevens weren't disabled.

"The nature of his disability is so severe that it makes it easier
politically for the governor to do this," Harrington said.

There is some hope for those who want to reform the oft-criticized
Rockefeller drug laws.

Earlier this month, after his re-election as Assembly speaker, Sheldon
Silver pledged to work hard in the coming legislative session to reform
those drug laws, to give judges more discretion in sentencing drug offenders.

Silver previously had opposed the reform efforts.

Harrington isn't convinced, though.

"I still haven't seen the political fortitude by anybody in the Legislature
to do something about this," he said. "I think the whole sentencing scheme
needs to be changed."