GOVERNOR FREES MAN CONVICTED OF DRUG CHARGE

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Gov. George Voinovich has commuted the
15-year-to-life prison sentence of an Indiana man whose case was cited as
an example of unjust mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug
offenders.

Marcus R. Wood, 26, is expected to be released from the state prison in
Warren as soon as the paperwork is completed.

The trial judge supported the commutation request, telling Voinovich in a
letter that the mandatory sentence was too harsh.

Woods, then 22, and a friend, David I. Wright, then 20, were returning home
from a Grateful Dead concert at the Richfield Coliseum on Sept. 11, 1993,
when they were stopped by a Medina County sheriff's deputy in a routine
traffic check.

A search done after marijuana was found in their van turned up 1,099 doses
of "blotter" LSD on a notebook-sized piece of paper.

Both Woods and Wright denied knowing about the LSD and blamed each other.

Wright was convicted in July 1994. Woods waived his right to a jury trial,
but was found guilty by Common Pleas Judge Judith Cross.

Because of the amount of LSD seized, the two men were charged under an Ohio
law that mandated a sentence of 15 years to life with no hope of parole for
10 years.

Cross said she had no choice but to give them the full sentences.

Less than a year after Woods and Wright began serving their sentences, the
mandatory sentence provision was eliminated by the Legislature in a
revamping of Ohio's criminal code, which went into effect in July 1996.

But the change did not affect Woods, who lost four appeals of his
conviction. His case was one of four examples examined in a story in
Rolling Stone magazine earlier this month on the issue of mandatory
sentences.

Voinovich spokesman Mike Dawson did not elaborate on the governor's
decision to commute Woods' sentence to the 2{ years he has served. He said
Voinovich "looks at the entire facts of the case and makes a decision based
on those facts."

Dawson did point out that the 10-member state parole board was unanimous in
recommending Woods' sentence be commuted.

Woods' mother, Trudy, 54, of Seymour, Ind., told the Akron Beacon Journal
for a story published today she was anxiously awaiting her son's release.

"It's like a dream come true," she said. "It's almost over. When he's home
it will be over."