PRESIDENT'S ACT FREES MOBILE WOMAN

President Clinton on Friday commuted the controversial 19-year
sentence of a Mobile woman convicted of conspiracy to distribute crack
cocaine.

Dorothy Gaines served six years of her sentence.

"I'm still trying to see if this is a dream," Ms. Gaines said Friday
night, minutes after she was reunited with her family in Mobile. "I
see my son, my daughter and my grandkids and I don't believe their
size. I didn't recognize them."

Ms. Gaines, 42, was convicted under a federal drug conspiracy law that
allows prosecution of all who assist in a drug ring, even if they
don't actually sell drugs. She was convicted based primarily on the
testimony of other conspirators who plea bargained for lesser sentences.

The sentence of Ms. Gaines, who refused to plead guilty, was tougher
than those given to the leaders of the crack ring.

Clinton's action, one of a batch of Christmas commutations and pardons
Friday, ends a controversial case taken up by women's groups and
opponents of mandatory minimum prison sentences.

Ms. Gaines had no prior felony record and was never caught with drugs,
according to The Mobile Register, which publicized her case in a 1997
series of stories. Federal prosecutors claimed her role in the ring
was to hide crack at her home and resupply street sellers. Gaines told
The Register she simply ran with the wrong crowd.

Ms. Gaines' daughter, Chara, learned her mother would be released from
a Florida prison with a Friday morning phone call from her sister.

"I thought she was playing but when I heard her crying, I started
screaming and hollering," said the 17-year-old who has lived with her
older sister, Natasha, since her mother was sent to prison almost six
years ago.

Ms. Gaines said it will take some time to adjust to life outside
prison walls. First thing today, she plans to take a long bath.

"I don't ever want to see another shower," she said.