SEEKING CLEMENCY FOR NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS

The Year Of Jubilee

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty
throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to
you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every
one of you to your family.

- Leviticus 25:10

IN this season of mercy and year of jubilee, outgoing President Bill
Clinton is considering executive clemency for junk-bond financier
Michael Milken, Arkansas pals Webster Hubbell and Susan McDougal
(Whitewater) and Archie Schaffer (attempted bribery).

Milken, who served time for securities fraud, has a good chance of
clearing his record, according to the Dec. 9 New York Times.
``Milken's pardon application has been raised directly with the
president by a major Democratic contributor and Clinton financial
benefactor and has received the most attention in the White House,
officials said.''

By contrast, Dorothy Gaines is a longshot. Crack dealers, offered less
time in prison for implicating others, said Gaines was involved with
her boyfriend's drug sales. A search found no drugs, drug
paraphernalia or drug money in her home. State prosecutors dropped the
case. Federal prosecutors took it over, using the dealers' testimony
to convict Gaines of conspiracy. The Alabama nurse, the widowed mother
of three children, had no criminal record, but harsh federal
``mandatory minimum'' laws gave the judge no discretion: Gaines was
sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison. She's served nearly six already.

The Coalition for Jubilee Clemency, a group of religious leaders,
hasn't given money to Clinton's campaigns, defense fund or library.
Still, they're asking Clinton to use his clemency powers to release
low-level, non-violent drug offenders on supervised parole, if they've
served at least five years in federal prisons.

In addition to Gaines, that would include Joey Settembrino, an
18-year-old first-time offender who got 10 years for selling LSD to an
undercover officer. The deal was set up by a friend facing federal
charges.

Nicole Richardson also was a teenager when she passed on a message to
her LSD-dealing boyfriend. He named others and got five years. She
didn't know enough to implicate anyone so she's doing 10 years.

Gary and Joanne Tucker and Gary's brother Steve are serving 10 years
for conspiracy to grow marijuana. Customers of their hydroponics
garden store, facing long sentences, said the Tuckers gave advice on
growing marijuana.

Federal prisons are filled with non-violent drug violators. There were
16,316 low-level, non-violent, first-time drug offenders in federal
prison in 1994, according to a U.S. Justice Department study. The
number of drug prisoners has increased by 50 percent since then. On
average, they receive longer sentences than rapists.

The Coalition for Jubilee Clemency doesn't expect a mass release. It
wants Clinton to ask federal judges to recommend parole for their most
troubling cases, prisoners they believe were convicted or sentenced
unjustly.

So far, the White House hasn't responded to the clemency appeal,
signed by 675 religious leaders. But in a recent Rolling Stone
interview, the president said that "most judges" -- 86 percent of
federal judges in a recent survey -- think mandatory minimums should
be abolished.

"There are tons of people in prison who are non-violent offenders,
who have drug-related charges that are directly related to their own
drug problems," Clinton said. "I think the sentences in many cases
are too long for non-violent offenders."

Clinton, who pardoned five drug prisoners in July, said he'd wanted to
re-examine federal policy on imprisonment. But he'd run out of time.

Too busy working on that legacy, I guess.

Among the Bay Area signers of the clemency appeal is Lydia
Ferrante-Roseberry, minister of Eden United Church of Christ. Some
members of her congregation have spouses who are in and out of jail on
drug charges. "I feel the War on Drugs is doing a lot to destroy
families," Ferrante-Roseberry says.

A jail chaplain for 25 years, David Robinson also signed the clemency
appeal. "Every person is a child of God," says Robinson, who heads
Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy in Milpitas, which serves inmates
in Santa Clara County. "Justice includes mercy."

He's seen broken men and women who use drugs to kill their pain, and
hardened prisoners who've given up hope. They rarely think ahead, so
the threat of incarceration is not a deterrent. "We need to break the
cycle," Robinson says. "People who have messed up need an
opportunity to change and tools to change, or they lose hope."

President Clinton may be looking for a pardon himself, if he's charged
with perjury after he leaves office. This would be a good time to show
mercy -- not just to the well-connected but to people who've paid a
heavy price for small mistakes.