CRUEL AND UNUSUAL

In 1994, a pregnant and desperate Kemba Smith finally had mustered the
spine to leave her drug dealer boyfriend, who was hiding in Seattle from
the feds, and return to her parents' Virginia home. She had no prior
convictions, no record of violence. She turned herself over to the feds for
questioning. Her father expected them to release her on bond.

Instead, Smith fell victim to a justice system riddled with draconian drug
sentences, prosecutorial overkill and judicial malpractice. A court
investigation concluded that, although she had "aided and abetted" her
boyfriend's drug operation, she was not a cocaine dealer. Nonetheless, in
1995 a federal judge sentenced her to 24½ years in federal prison. No parole.

In 1996, Emerge magazine ran a story about Peter Hall's seduction of Kemba
Smith, then a student at Hampton University. She was 23 and was impressed
with Hall's fancy apartment. By the end, they were homeless, she had
suffered a miscarriage after a beating and was pregnant again. Hall had
killed his friend Derrick Taylor because he believed Taylor had talked to
law enforcement and had taken Kermba to the west coast in search of another
rumored informant. To say that Smith made mistakes would be a big time
understatement.

Her mistakes didn't end when she left Hall. She lied to authorities about
Hall's whereabouts. According to Emerge, Smith had called her attorney and
was about to disclose where Hall was when his dead body was found.

Parents Gus and Odessa Smith care for Kemba's now 3year old son. Gus said
last week, when Kemba turned herself in, "They told us in court they
wouldn't let her go because they thought that Peter Hall would threaten her
or maybe even kill her. They said that the safest place for her is in jail.
But when Peter got killed, they still wouldn't give her a bond."

Gus said Kemba pleaded guilty to three charges, expecting a sentence of
time served, with maybe an extra year, maybe not.

It was a mistake. One of the charges was conspiracy in connection with
Hall's 255kilogram crack trade even though much of those drugs were sold
before Smith began seeing Hall. The other two charges were money laundering
(using drug money to bail Hall from jail) and lying to authorities

According to Smith's present lawyer, Catherine Powell of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund, Smith still expected a drastic sentence reduction up to the
day she heard the 24year bell toll. Powell charged prosecutorial
misconduct. The prosecutor, assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Groene, said
he could not comment.

Powell also believes the judge could have mitigated Smith's punishment
de spite mandatory sentencing because Smith was under duress.
Considering what happened to the late Derrick Taylor, and considering that
Smith wasn't a dealer she's right. But Judge Richard Kellam said 24 and a
half, saying "the only purpose of it is a deterrent to others.

Powell also has filed an appeal on constitutional grounds. She believes the
sentence violates constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment." So does
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (its Web site is at www.FAMM.org) an
organization that opposes federal mandatory sentencing.

Gus Smith believes that his daughter wouldn't be in jail if she were white.
He cited the infamous nanny case: Louise Woodward convicted of
manslaughter, is free Smith's daughter, guilty of willful stupidity, could
be behind bars until Woodward is in her 40s.

Or maybe this was just an unlucky convergence: a young black woman just
happened to be steam rolled by ridiculously tough sentencing rules, the
wrong prosecu tor and a judge who decided she might as well be an example.

If so, beware: It's an example that can be repeated for other nonviolent
kids who go wrong.