ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS TAKE BEATING AT SYMPOSIUM

Albany -- The common idea among participants is that judges need fewer
restrictions on sentencing

The harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws were thrashed Tuesday by advocates
with very different ideas for revision, but one common goal: more
power for the judges.

A variety of reform/revise/repeal proposals were bandied about during
a statewide Bar Association symposium on New York's controversial drug
statutes, and all of them -- in one form or another -- would give
judges more say in whether a narcotics felon goes to prison and for
how long.

"I am not anticipating that judges will be automatically liberal,''
said Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry, D-Queens, who has introduced
legislation to repeal the 1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws. "But what I do
believe is that where we have cases that cry out for an alternative to
incarceration, I trust judges to do that. Judges are there for a purpose.''

Under the Rockefeller Drug Laws, suspects convicted of certain
narcotics crimes must be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison,
even if it is their first offense and even if they have no history of
violence. Critics say the laws have resulted in the warehousing of
thousands of citizens whose primary problem is addiction, not
criminality.

"The way we are fighting the war on drugs has not met anybody's
definition as effective,'' said Aubry. "I think society is ready to
take another look at this issue. ''

State Sen. John DeFrancisco, a Republican from Syracuse, said the
tough sentences included in the Rockefeller Drug Laws have failed to
achieve their objective -- eliminating the drug trade.

"Obviously, that overreaction hasn't worked and we still have a drug
problem in this state,'' DeFrancisco said.

Currently, all three branches of government are promoting proposals to
alter the state's drug laws as an issue that has languished for years
is seemingly coming to the forefront.

Richard D. Simons, a retired judge who served on the state's highest
court, said that after 20 years of reviewing sentencing decisions, he
has come to a conclusion: "These laws have to be changed.'' Simons was
considered one of the most conservative judges on the Court of Appeals
in recent years.

"In the ordinary case, of course, the judge tailors the sentence to
the crime and to the criminal,'' Simons said. "Under the drug laws as
they now exist, he or she can't do that.''