COMMUTATIONS IN CASES INVOLVING FEDERAL SENTENCING STANDARDS

WASHINGTON -- In the time it takes to earn a bachelor's degree, Kemba
Smith went from college student to battered woman on the lam with a
drug-dealing man.

She loved and feared her boyfriend, Peter Hall, too much to help the
FBI capture him. Hall eventually was killed. Smith got 25 years in
prison for drug crimes about which she and her supporters contend she
knew very little.

President Clinton set her free Friday, along with Dorothy Gaines,
whose 19-year sentence also underscored disparities in federally
mandated punishments for bit players in the war on drugs.

"I'm real happy. That's the only thing I asked for for Christmas,"
said Gaines' 16-year-old son Phillip, who wrote Clinton seeking a
pardon for his mother. "I said the greatest gift you could send me was
to send me my mom. And he did it."

Gaines, 42, of Mobile, Ala., and Smith, 29, of Richmond, Va., were
among three prisoners whose sentences were commuted by Clinton on
Friday. The president also issued 59 pardons to various other
individuals.

Gaines served seven years. Smith served six, and gave birth while in
prison to her son Armani, now 6. He is being raised by her parents,
Gus and Odessa Smith.

"His mom will be home tonight to tuck him in for the first time in his
life. He does understand that," Odessa Smith, her voice choking with
emotion, told The Associated Press in an interview. "We are so very
grateful to President Clinton for letting our daughter come home."

The Smiths made pursuing Kemba's release a national crusade. Gus Smith
said Friday they will continue that fight on behalf of others
similarly incarcerated.

"We feel that we just can't stop. And I'm quite sure she doesn't want
to stop," he said. "It's just a bend in the road. For individuals who
have loved ones in the same predicament, I would tell them never give
up. If they give up, there is no hope. Hope is a good thing, and good
things don't die."

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which took on Smith's
case in 1996, said it was a dramatic example of the need to eliminate
mandatory minimum sentences established by Congress in the 1980s to
take down drug kingpins.

The problem, fund director Elaine Jones said, is that the kingpins are
able to cooperate with authorities and barter their freedom, while
lower-level players lack enough information to do that and typically
end up in prison for most of their lives.

Those offenders, Jones said, often are young, black or Latino, poor
and before the judge on a first-time offense.

"President Clinton has acted correctly," Jones said. "We hope Congress
will move forward to reform these overly harsh sentencing policies."

Smith and Gaines contend they never actually handled the crack cocaine
that put them behind bars. All they did, they say, was stand by their
men.

Smith's role in the drug ring involved renting a storage space here, a
car or apartment there. In court papers, she said she got involved in
Hall's crack cocaine ring to keep him from beating her. She became a
fugitive with Hall in 1993 and surrendered in September 1994, a month
before Hall was shot to death. She pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy,
laundering money and lying to federal investigators.

Gaines' role involved accepting badly needed cash from her boyfriend,
who later testified that Gaines did not know the money came from drug
proceeds. Alabama state court charges against Gaines were dropped for
lack of physical evidence. She was convicted in U.S. District Court
mainly on the testimony of witnesses who cooperated in exchange for
reduced sentences.

Their sentences were so long because their offenses involved crack
cocaine, which draws a longer prison term than crimes involving
powdered cocaine, a disparity that has a disproportionate impact on
minorities and the poor.

"These individuals are the tip of a very large iceberg," said Laura
Sager, executive director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an
advocacy group. "There are thousands of low-level, nonviolent
offenders in federal prisons, and more pouring in every day."

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Clinton said the
cocaine sentencing disparity merited review. White House spokesman
Jake Siewert said Friday the president had suggested changes and
supported a proposal that would have reduced the disparity.

"But ultimately, Congress has to make these decisions," Siewert said.