RESENTENCING ORDERED AFTER APPEAL

A federal appellate court has vacated two life sentences imposed last
year on Maurice Jerome McDonald, a major player in a 1990s drug
distribution ring that operated in the Little Rock area.

But the three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
St. Louis left intact another life sentence that U.S. District Judge
Stephen M. Reasoner imposed on McDonald for a related conviction.

Reasoner sentenced McDonald, now 29, on Nov. 22, 1999, to three life
sentences -- one for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances,
one for distribution of marijuana and one for distribution of crack
cocaine. Reasoner ordered McDonald to serve those terms concurrently
with one another, and added a 20-year sentence for a related
conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

But an appeal filed on McDonald's behalf by his Little Rock attorney,
Mark Alan Jesse, led to a partial reversal of last year's sentence. A
Nov. 1 ruling by U.S. Circuit Judge Richard S. Arnold of Little Rock,
on behalf of himself and Circuit Judges George G. Fagg of Des Moines,
Iowa, and Donald P. Lay of St. Paul, Minn., eliminates two of the life
sentences and the 20-year sentence. It orders Reasoner to resentence
McDonald on those convictions.

Arnold noted that a 1998 indictment didn't specify the amount of drugs
involved in the conspiracy, and that jurors who convicted McDonald
also didn't make a finding as to quantity.

"On these facts, the sentence Mr. McDonald could receive for his
conspiracy conviction is limited to 20 years," Arnold wrote.

On the marijuana distribution count, the appellate panel noted that
although the indictment accused McDonald of distributing 15 ounces of
crack, prosecutors later conceded that the charge actually involved 15
pounds of marijuana -- for which the maximum sentence is five years.

Under new case law that was decided after Reasoner sentenced McDonald,
and even after McDonald filed an appellate brief, those sentences must
be vacated, the appellate panel ruled. The new case law is a U.S.
Supreme Court case decided this year called Apprendi v. New Jersey. In
applying it, the circuit judges noted that new rules of constitutional
criminal procedure are normally applied retroactively to all pending
cases before the appellate court.

The other distribution conviction, which involved two ounces of crack,
requires a sentence of between 10 years to life under federal
statutes, Arnold wrote. Because Reasoner found that McDonald was
connected to more than 150 kilograms of cocaine, that he possessed a
gun when arrested and that he had a supervisory role in the crime,
Reasoner was correct in declaring that sentencing guidelines mandate a
life sentence on that count, Arnold wrote.

The maximum sentence for the gun possession conviction is 10 years --
not 20 as stated in a pre-sentence report and in Reasoner's sentencing
order -- the appellate panel added.

In addition to ordering new sentencings for McDonald on the
conspiracy, marijuana and weapons convictions, the panel vacated a
27-year sentence against one of McDonald's co-defendants, Jamo
Jenkins, 32, who is also from Little Rock.

The circuit judges cited ambiguity about whether jurors thought
Jenkins possessed marijuana or cocaine when they convicted him of
distribution and conspiracy charges. The jurors had heard
tape-recordings in which co-conspirators used slang terms that
arguably referred to either drug.

In ambiguous cases, a judge should sentence a defendant on the
alternative that yields a lower sentencing range, the circuit judges
said. They said Reasoner thus should have assumed that the jury's
findings centered on marijuana, which would subject Jenkins to a
maximum sentence of five years on each count.

Jenkins' case also was remanded for resentencing.

The panel affirmed Reasoner's rulings in the appeals of five other
defendants in the same case, which became known as the "Operation Skee
Patrol" case after the nickname of the drug ring's leader, Steven
Tyrone "Skee" Miller, 34, who is serving a 35-year sentence.