JAIL TIME'S A BUMMER, LAWYER FOR POT DEALER SAYS

In the nearly four months since Thomas Throckmorton was sent to jail
to await sentencing for distributing large quantities of marijuana,
he has gained 50 pounds and been beaten into unconsciousness by other
inmates who wanted to steal his commissary items.

He has diabetes and heart disease, high blood pressure and what could
be the beginnings of congestive heart failure. Mr. Throckmorton, 61,
of Baden, is also under treatment for anxiety and severe depression.

For all those reasons, his lawyer, Paul Boas, asked a federal judge
yesterday for leniency for his client.

"I'm just asking the court to temper its justice with mercy," Mr. Boas said.

The judge, who could consider an advisory sentencing range up to nine
years, chose the low end. He ordered Mr. Throckmorton to spend seven
years and three months in prison.

Mr. Throckmorton was convicted April 28 of one count of possession
with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana. A jury
found that the Beaver County man paid another man to drive to Arizona
to pick up 233 pounds of marijuana for him.

That man, Robert Gailey, was pulled over by the Missouri State
Highway Patrol on July 17, 2005. When officers searched the GMC truck
he was driving -- which was registered to Mr. Throckmorton's company
- -- they found the marijuana in a secret compartment.

Mr. Gailey told troopers he was transporting it for Mr. Throckmorton
and had made other trips in the past. He agreed to cooperate with
them, and they set up a controlled delivery, at which Mr.
Throckmorton was arrested.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Almon S. Burke Jr. asked the judge to
sentence Mr. Throckmorton as though he'd had 720 pounds of marijuana
- -- the amount he was supposed to have delivered at a later date --
but U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry refused.

"He wasn't charged with that, or convicted of that, so those
additional amounts are not going to be bumped into those advisory
sentencing guidelines," the judge said.

Mr. Throckmorton faced a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in
prison, but Mr. Boas asked the judge if that could be served in home detention.

"He's a sitting duck, and he's an easy target for people," Mr. Boas
said. "It's very likely he won't do well in a prison setting."

But Judge McVerry said that he called the federal Bureau of Prisons
himself to ensure that Mr. Throckmorton would be placed in a facility
with good medical care. In addition, the judge said that his move
from the Allegheny County Jail to federal prison will be expedited,
and that he hopes it happens at "record speed."

Mr. Boas told the judge that he plans to appeal the conviction.