U.S. SUPREME COURT TO PONDER IOWA DRUG SENTENCE

Two Iowa defense lawyers will take an Iowa case before the U.S.
Supreme Court next week that could change how federal judges
resentence convicts after appeals.

At issue is whether judges can consider a convict's efforts at
rehabilitation while his case is on appeal.

The Iowa case embodies fundamental questions about fairness and second
chances. Should society reward a convict for working to better himself
when freed during an appeal? Or would that be unfair because no such
consideration is possible for the initial sentence?

The case involves Jason Pepper, now 31, who was arrested seven years
ago in Akron, Ia., on drug charges. He later pleaded guilty. He served
his prison sentence and was released. But prosecutors repeatedly
appealed his sentence, claiming it was too light.

Today, Pepper is 31. He is married, he has a job, and he has a child
on the way. But if the Supreme Court rules against him, he could be
headed back behind bars.

The story of how Pepper went from troubled youth to meth addict is a
sad one, but not all that surprising anymore in Iowa. Everything that
has happened since, though, has been exceptional, according to many
who work in the federal justice system.

Pepper's supporters hope his case will finally come to an end as a
result of the Dec. 6 arguments before the nation's highest court.

If Pepper wins, he could go down in legal history as someone who stuck
his neck out so others might earn a rare second chance in the federal
justice system.

"If I wouldn't have fought this, I would have been done by now,"
Pepper said during an interview at his home in St. Joseph, Ill. "But
it will be worth it to me if someone else benefits." Court fight has
been ongoing for seven years

Pepper's story starts in October 2003, when three cars filled with
federal agents surrounded the 24-year-old. He was charged with
conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

In 2004, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett of Sioux City initially
sentenced Pepper to 24 months in prison. That is far below the term
specified in controversial federal sentencing guidelines.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said in recent years that the guidelines
should be advisory, not mandatory. But federal appeals courts have
been split on how to interpret that guidance.

Prosecutors upset with the sentence won an appeal before the 8th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered Pepper to be
resentenced.

Bennett stuck with the same sentence, based in part on Pepper's
efforts to rehabilitate himself.

Prosecutors appealed the sentence again, contending factors such as
rehabilitation should be irrelevant. Again, prosecutors won.

As a result, four years after Pepper's release from prison came a
strange twist: He was resentenced to three more years in prison.

The newest justice on the Supreme Court sided with Pepper's defense
when she was U.S. solicitor general.

Elena Kagan wrote that no provision in court rules "prohibits a court
from considering at resentencing a defendant's efforts at
rehabilitation undertaken after his initial sentencing." In fact, she
added, a court rule "specifically instructs sentencing courts to
consider 'the history and characteristics of the defendant.' "

Pepper's lawyers, Alfredo Parrish of Des Moines and Leon Spies of Iowa
City, contend judges must be able to consider a defendant's
rehabilitation in extraordinary circumstances. To understand why, they
say, you need to consider Pepper's story.

"We heard the tale and thought this was a case that cried out for our
best efforts," Spies said. "We were both so sold on Jason and his
story that we decided to do it pro bono" - meaning they are donating
their services at no cost to him. After deaths in family, 'world was
crumbling'

Pepper moved from his hometown of St. Joseph, Ill., to Akron, in far
northwest Iowa, when he was 18. The child of divorced parents, he
wanted to be with his older brother and his mother, who had settled in
the town of 1,500.

"I hadn't lived with my mom for years," he said. "We were always
close, but I didn't get to see as much of her as I liked."

Pepper admits he was drinking and smoking pot by the time he arrived
in Iowa. Then he began trying other drugs. He said it didn't help that
he was a construction worker, and his boss at the time smoked pot and
drank.

He struggled. Then in February 1998, his life took a dive for the
worse.

That's when Pepper's older brother, Ben; Pepper's best friend; and
another youth all died in a car accident after a run-in with police.

"They were on Highway 10, near Orange City," Pepper said. "There was a
blizzard outside, and they came upon a tractor pulling a manure
spreader. They swerved and hit a semi head-on."

Ben had been the only stable force in his young life, Pepper said.
"After that, everything, just everything, started going downhill."

Pepper had tried meth before his brother's death. Afterward, he began
using it more frequently.

"It was, I don't know, euphoric," he said of the stimulant, one of the
world's most addictive drugs. "It was definitely a part of what I was
doing to cope."

About a month after Ben's death, Pepper's mother admitted him to a
psychiatric ward for depression. He was suicidal and spent 24 hours on
a couch, crying.

Doctors and relatives tried to get him to take antidepressants, but
Pepper said he wouldn't.

Then, in 2000, his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Pepper's
meth use picked up dramatically.

"My world was crumbling around me," he recalled. "I wound up losing
them both within four years. Devastated doesn't begin to describe what
I was feeling."

His drug conspiracy conviction was borne of the need to feed an
expensive habit, he said.

Pepper did not know how to make methamphetamine, nor could any "mom
and pop" lab supply him with enough to stay high. He bought and sold
large amounts to keep the cash coming, often dealing from his bicycle
in Akron. He became gaunt, weighing only 158 pounds, he said.

On the day Pepper was arrested, he and a friend had purchased 2 ounces
of meth for themselves to use and sell, he said. Another friend later
came over with cash to buy, supplied by federal agents.

"In hindsight, I think I knew deep down inside what was going on," he
said.

Pepper and his friend got high, and then he got on his bicycle to go
make some money.

Federal agents had already been to Pepper's home and arrested his
friend. The three cars full of agents whirled up and surrounded
Pepper, with the agents' guns drawn.

"I remember I just laid down on the ground and felt the biggest relief
of my life," he said. Weaned off drugs, he becomes changed man

Sitting in jail in Sioux City, Pepper began the difficult process of
withdrawal.

He slept. He sweated. He gained 60 pounds watching television and
eating.

"Honestly, it was horrible," Pepper said. "I started having night
terrors. I would wake up drenched in sweat. My body was detoxing. But
I also knew I was safe."

He says he did not know what the charge against him entailed, but he
was glad to be away from meth.

When Pepper went to trial, he pleaded guilty to a crime that typically
carries a mandatory 10-year prison sentence.

Pepper's original lawyer had recommended a steep departure from U.S.
sentencing guidelines with hopes the cooperative defendant-turned-witness
could get into a boot camp in Pennsylvania.

But Pepper had a $600-to-$800-a-day meth habit when he was arrested,
and Judge Bennett ultimately decided Pepper would benefit from a
500-hour treatment program at a federal prison in South Dakota.

Pepper recalled his past behavior - "A lot of it had to do with
blaming others" - and how the treatment changed him.

"I learned that you need to take responsibility for the choices you
make in life and weigh the consequences of your own decisions," he
said. "I also got to take a step back from my personal situation and
look at how my actions can be perceived through the eyes of others."

Once released from prison, Pepper became an "A" student in business
courses at Western Iowa Tech Community College. He landed a part-time
job at a Sioux City farm supply store and was training to become a
manager.

But in the meantime, lawyers for the government appealed his case.
Federal prosecutors won their quest to have him resentenced in 2005.

Bennett again considered the young man's cooperation with the
government in prosecuting the meth ring; the two devastating deaths in
Pepper's family; and his subsequent rehabilitation while in prison.
Bennett decided Pepper needed no more time behind bars.

But the government appealed again, and the Court of Appeals agreed
with prosecutors that Bennett had abused his judicial discretion and
ordered him off the case. Chief District Judge Linda Reade picked up
the case and sentenced Pepper anew in 2009 to an additional 41 months
in prison. He returned to prison in Florence, Colo.

In an unusual fourth ruling on the case, the 8th Circuit sided with
Reade, saying rehabilitation could not be considered when judges
depart from the federal sentencing guidelines.

Parrish and Spies appealed to the Supreme Court.

In July, Reade released Pepper from prison,
pending the outcome of his appeal. Lawyer: 'I
don't think this guy got a fair shot'

America's prisons are full of former drug addicts who swear they would
lead crime-free, productive lives if given a second chance. But the
federal justice system has no parole. Federal judges typically do not
get to consider strides inmates have made since their
convictions.

"Very rarely do you get to come back to court for a new sentencing in
the first place," said Paul Rosenberg, a Des Moines defense lawyer.
"One of the issues this case raises is: Is it fair that only those
defendants who, by happenstance, are back before the court get to have
a second look?

"But the other problem is: Is it really permissible for someone to be
sentenced once and then have to come back to court and be sentenced
again more severely? Isn't that double jeopardy?"

The Court of Appeals said Pepper's rehabilitation was admirable, but
not relevant in his resentencing. Lower courts, the judges said, could
not have considered that evidence in granting a lighter sentence than
the guidelines recommended because the evidence was not available at
the time.

Under the sentencing guidelines, Pepper could have served at least 97
months in prison. Bennett reduced his initial sentence by 75 percent.
Prosecutors said Pepper deserved only a 15 percent sentence reduction.

Bennett's second sentence amounted to a 59 percent
reduction.

Other defendants in the case - Alexander Blankenship, Felipe Sandoval
and Jose Martin Barragan-Torres - were given far longer prison terms
of 72, 35 and 90 months.

With his cooperation, time off for good behavior and completion of
treatment, Pepper likely faces just eight more months split between
prison and a halfway house.

Still, he said he wants to fight.

To Parrish and Spies, the case is "the final bookend" to a series of
high court decisions that have poked at the durability of the
controversial sentencing guidelines.

Pepper's case, they say, clearly illustrates why rehabilitation must
come into play when considering all the facts of a case during rare
resentencings.

"I didn't think this guy got a fair shot," said Parrish, who will
argue the case.

"Pepper was given a sentence based on these mandatory rules that do
nothing more to help people once they get on the right path."

These days, Pepper is married and a father to his wife's 9-year-old
daughter. His wife, Hannah, a former high school sweetheart, is
pregnant, and their baby is due in the spring.

Pepper said he is doing well in his night work at a Sam's Club near
his home in St. Joseph. He's put business school on the back burner
because of his demanding job and his appeal.

One day, he hopes to run his own business, perhaps a
restaurant.

Pepper said he still drinks at times, but he is certain he would never
go near meth again.

"I have been working my butt off to stay on the straight and narrow,"
he said. "I would rather commit suicide."

He said the most important thing he will get from the Supreme Court
justices' decision sometime before next summer is closure.

"After December, I will finally feel like I can move on with the next
chapter of my life," he said. "But I just don't think I deserve to
have to go back."