TEXAS WOMAN FREED AFTER SERVING LONGER TERM THAN DRUG-DEALING EX-HUSBAND

DALLAS -- The former wife of a Dallas businessman has been released from
federal prison after serving more than a third of a 24-year sentence -- a
punishment far more severe than that given her ex-husband, who was the
center of a drug ring.

On Friday, President Clinton commuted the sentences of Amy Pofahl, 40,
formerly of Dallas, and three other women -- Louise House, Shawndra Mills
and Serena Nunn -- all first-time offenders who got longer sentences than
the men involved.

"The president felt they had served a disproportionate amount of time,"
White House spokesman Jake Siewert said.

Pofahl walked out of a federal prison in Dublin, Calif., Friday.

"It's been incredible," she said yesterday in a phone interview from her
parents' house in her hometown, Charleston, Ark. "I've been so excited I
haven't slept in three days."

Pofahl must still serve five years on federal parole.

In 1992, Pofahl was sentenced for crimes including conspiracy and money
laundering. By all accounts, she became involved to help her then-husband,
Sandy Pofahl, who was a central figure in a drug ring that manufactured and
distributed ecstasy.

Authorities arrested Amy Pofahl in March 1991, and she spent a year in the
McLennan County Jail before she was sentenced in February 1992 and sent to
the Dublin federal prison. She exhausted her appeals, and clemency from the
president was her only hope.

David Parker, a Rockwall attorney who represented Amy Pofahl throughout the
clemency appeals, said he was "overjoyed" and grateful to Clinton.

"It's a real happy moment," Parker said. "The kingpin of the whole
operation was Sandy. [Amy Pofahl] was way oversentenced."

Sandy Pofahl, a prosperous Dallas businessman and graduate of Stanford
University Law School, was arrested in Germany for manufacturing and
distributing ecstasy. Sandy Pofahl asked his wife, who then lived in
California, to withdraw money that he had stashed in different accounts.
That was the only part Amy Pofahl played in the conspiracy, she says.

Her main offense was to not cooperate with federal agents, who threatened
to indict her, she said. Other ring members who cut deals with prosecutors
received reduced sentences, according to court records.

Sandy Pofahl served four years in a German prison. When he returned to this
country, federal prosecutors declined to pursue charges that would have
kept him in prison longer.

Reached at his Dallas home yesterday, Sandy Pofahl said he wasn't aware
that his ex-wife had been released. "Outstanding," he said. "That's terrific."

Sandy and Amy Pofahl were divorced about three years ago, Amy Pofahl said.

Nunn was convicted after being drawn into a Minneapolis drug ring by her
boyfriend. She received a 14-year sentence after refusing to inform on him.
She served 10 years before her release.

The federal judge who sentenced her lobbied the White House for her early
release and criticized the mandatory sentencing guidelines that Congress
imposed in the 1980s.

Critics of the sentencing laws for conspiracy say the women's cases show
how the laws often impose severe penalties on people only marginally
involved in a drug offense, such as dealers' wives or girlfriends.

"I left so many women behind -- it was a bittersweet victory, really," Amy
Pofahl said. "You can't imagine the emotion and excitement that went
through the entire institution."

The White House did not make available details of the House and Mills cases.