SENATE SHOULD HEED MARLINGA'S WORDS ON 'LIFER' LAW REFORMS

Let's hear it for Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga ...and urge all
members of the Michigan Senate to read his short, tothepoint testimony
from earlier this month in which he said, among other things, that "judges,
not prosecutors, should set sentences."

What!? A county prosecutor said this? That judges should be the ones to set
sentences?

Correct. Anyway, senators should read what he said in preparation for floor
debate and voting later this week on bills designed to restore sanity to
Michigan's wretchedly inflexible collection of mandatory minimum drug
sentencing laws. Those laws, of course, include the infamous,
harshestinthenation "lifer" law that mandates life (or, if you prefer,
death) in prison without parole for anyone convicted of delivering or
intending to deliver 650 grams or more of heroin or cocaine even young,
firsttime, supposedly nonviolent offenders.

The lifer penalty, as has been noted, is harsher than for rape, child abuse
and many murders.

Anyway, Marlinga, hardly a patsy for the softoncrime set but earnestly
supportive of reforms, addressed all this in testimony before the Senate
Judiciary Committee on Oct. 7, saying:

•Mandatory minimums, while "politically popular," have proved
"intellectually bankrupt" and have failed to put away the original targets,
drug kingpins.

•Mandatory sentences strip Michigan's judiciary of discretion and, in
effect, unfairly turn over the process to prosecutors who determine
sentences when they decide on charges ...absent the due process of public
hearings in court, presentence reports, appeals, etc., that might turn up
mitigating circumstances.

•And, in addressing the lifer law, Marlinga said "life without parole is
not a universally appropriate punishment."

Anyway, legislation sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Bill Van
Regenmorter, RHudsonville, that could reform at least some of this mess
was approved in committee following Marlinga's testimony. And the Senate
has scheduled action Wednesday and Thursday.

The House, meantime, is moving toward an even more substantive reform
package but is evidently waiting for the Senate to act first.

Potential changes include the possibility of parole after 15 years for
lifers who meet certain tests; more sentencing flexibility for lesser drug
offenses; and, in one House proposal, elimination of all mandatory minimums.

Action is long overdue.

Off and on for years, a bipartisan procession of enlightened judges, prison
officials and prosecutors coordinated since 1996 by Michigan Families
Against Mandatory Minimums has urged reform of Michigan's mandatory drug
sentences.

But until this week ...

Well, here's some advice to senators who might want to benefit from a
quick, thoughtful summary in order to bring themselves up to speed on the
right thing to do: Read Marlinga.

For a copy, call Michigan Families Against Mandatory Minimums,
15174824982 anytime.