MAN LET GO AFTER HIS MACADAMIA NUT BUY

Courts:A judge releases him,ruling that his one year served satisfies the
three-year sentence in the drug charge.

The macadamia nut ended up costing Foster Morris one year in Orange County
Jail,not the life sentence he feared.

Morris, 57, who is in a wheelchair because his legs were amputated, was
arrested last August after attempting to buy rock cocaine from an undercover
Santa Ana policeman who was actually selling macadamia nuts.

The District Attorney's Office prosecuted Morris under the state's "three
strikes, you're out" law - Morris has eight "strikes" on his record for
robberies and burglaries between 1959 and 1981 - meaning he faced 25 years
to life in prison.

Despite defense assertions that Morris is a harmless addict accused of a
nonviolent crime, prosecutors and three judges refused to use their
discretion to offer anything less than the maximum sentence - until Friday.

Three days after a jury deadlocked 8-4 in favor of convicting Morris, Deputy
District Attorney Sonia Balleste agreed to drop seven of the eight strikes.
Morris pleaded guilty and Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard F.
Toohey sentenced him to three years in prison and then ordered Morris to be
released Friday because the year he has served satisfied the sentence.

Deputy Public Defender Maria Hernandez praised the judge and the district
attorney. "They did what is just and humane in light of the charge, his old
priors, his age and his health."

In an interview at Orange County Jail earlier this year, Morris admitted he
had made some mistakes in his life but said he had been so weakened by
diabetes, cancer and three heart attacks that he is no longer a threat.

Now, instead of facing what he termed a "death sentence," he will return
home to live with his sister in Tustin.

Before he was led out of the courtroom, Morris turned to Balleste and said,
"Thanks for giving me a second chance."

Checked-by: "Don Beck"