DRUG SENTENCES, CASE BY CASE

To the Editor:

In "Setting Kingpins Free" (Op-Ed, July 16), the retired judge Leslie
Crocker Snyder criticizes the Legislature's efforts to reform the
Rockefeller drug laws, saying, "No one envisioned that the sentences
of drug kingpins would be reduced."

No meaningful definition of "drug kingpin" exists. The Legislature
understood this, and refused to use such epithets to distinguish who
should benefit from the law, and who should not.

Some judges, much to Ms. Snyder's dismay, have exercised the power to
sentence in the way thought best, based on individual circumstances.
It appears that Ms. Snyder would prefer that judges seek her counsel
on cases that appeared before her, before resentencing them.

By publishing her stance on the Legislature's reforms to the
draconian Rockefeller drug laws, she manages to remain in the public
eye and jumpstart her next run for Manhattan district attorney.

Ray Kelly

Pres., New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Albany