GIULIANI DERIDES IDEA OF A CRACK AMNESTY

GLENDALE, Calif. -- Mayor Giuliani is adding his voice to a chorus of
prosecutors and police groups warning against a proposal that could
allow about 20,000 convicted crack cocaine dealers and users to win
release from prison before their sentences are complete.

"I would not want to let people out of jail who are in there for crack
cocaine," Mr. Giuliani said yesterday after touring the California
headquarters for his campaign for the Republican presidential
nomination. "I would not think we would want a major movement in
letting crack cocaine dealers out of jail. It doesn't sound like a
good thing to do."

The United States Sentencing Commission, which already reduced the
sentencing guidelines for crack offenses effective November 1, held a
public hearing yesterday to consider making the change retroactive.
The proposal would allow about 20,000 crack convicts to apply to have
their sentences shortened in conformance with the new guidelines.
About 3,800 of those prisoners could be freed in the first year if the
guidelines were made retroactive.

In response to a question from The New York Sun yesterday, Mr.
Giuliani said he was not familiar with the details of the proposal,
but added that his experience as a prosecutor made him wary of a surge
of thousands of ex-offenders onto the streets.

"I remember the crack epidemic. I actually lived through it as United
States Attorney in the Southern District of New York," he said. "It
kind of happened in 1982 and 1983 and we kind of caught up with it in
1984, and I was named U.S. Attorney in 1983. So I watched it actually
happen and it was a disaster. Some of the horrendous crime rates in
New York that I eventually had to deal with as mayor came about
because of crack cocaine."

At the Sentencing Commission meeting in Washington, a federal
prosecutor speaking for the Bush administration, Gretchen Shappert of
Charlotte, N.C., said the impact of the guidelines change would be
most severe in vulnerable, drug-infested communities. The harm to
those neighborhoods "will be swift; it will be sudden and, in my
opinion, irreversible," Ms. Shappert said, the Associated Press reported.

The Fraternal Order of Police and the National District Attorneys
Association have also criticized the plan. Supporters of the change
include the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, the National
Black Police Association, and a group funded by George Soros, the Open
Society Policy Center.

Several federal judges are also backing the retroactive guidelines,
including Judge Reggie Walton of Washington, who is best known for
presiding over the trial of a top White House aide, I. Lewis Libby
Jr.

Judge Walton noted that the commission has made retroactive changes in
the guidelines for marijuana, LSD, and OxyContin, which are used and
dealt primarily by whites. Blacks, who account for the vast majority
of crack offenders, would notice if "this was done for one segment of
society but not for another," the judge said, according to the AP.

There is no deadline for the commission to make a decision. Even if
the guidelines were deemed retroactive, each sentence reduction would
have to be approved by a federal judge.

The other major presidential campaigns did not respond to inquiries
from the Sun yesterday about the views of their candidates on the
retroactive sentencing proposal.

In his news conference yesterday, Mr. Giuliani claimed to be
unperturbed by the decision of a major anti-abortion group, the
National Right to Life Committee, to endorse one of his rivals, Fred
Thompson. The ex-mayor also managed to work in a backhanded
acknowledgment of recent polls showing his campaign slumping in the
early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

"People have a right to come to all different decisions," Mr. Giuliani
said. "I expect to win the Republican nomination, but believe it or
not I do not expect to win every vote, nor do I expect to win every
primary. Nobody's ever done that."

Mr. Giuliani brusquely rebuffed the efforts of several reporters to
get him to take sides in the writers' strike that threatens to shut
down television and movie production in Los Angeles and New York.
However, he later agreed to answer a question on the dispute and
bemoaned the "tremendous impact" it was having on all involved.

The former mayor still wouldn't take sides in the dispute, but said he
would mediate, if asked. "If they needed my help, I'd be more than
happy to help, as a fair-minded mediator. I can think of two big
strikes in New York that I helped to settle, but I'm sure they have a
lot of people that are willing to do that," he said.

Mr. Giuliani held closed-door fund-raisers yesterday in Irvine and in
the Chinatown section of downtown Los Angeles.

The Chinatown event was hosted by members of the Chinese and Korean
communities, including a California tax board member who bills herself
as the highest ranking Korean-American elected official, Michelle Steel.

"It was a good opportunity with an Asian-American group to make the
point that legal immigration is real important to the United States,"
Mr. Giuliani told reporters later. "Nobody wants to do anything to
jeopardize legal immigration. It's got to be done legally. It's got to
be ... above-board. I think that's the best thing for communities that
feel outcast now."