PIGNATELLI TAKES AIM AT DRUG LAW

Lawmaker Opposes Mandatory 2-Year School-Zone

State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, his interest raised by the
Great Barrington school-zone drug charges lodged against 17 young
people last year, is working on an amendment that would eliminate the
law's two-year mandatory minimum jail term for first-time offenders.

The public debate over the issue has brought the issue to his
attention, said the Lenox Democrat.

"There are a lot of young people who have gone to jail for two years
without a lot of community outcry, and these (Great Barrington) cases
have brought this to my attention," he said. "It's now on my radar
screen. We're thinking about it."

Give judges discretion An opponent of mandatory minimum sentencing in
general, Pignatelli said his proposal would give judges discretion in
sentencing first-time offenders to punishments that fit their crimes.
That sentence could be either harsh, lenient or creative, depending
on the circumstances, he said. "I'm not an advocate of mandatory
minimum sentencing because we have good judges, and to tie their
hands for a first offender, I just think it's wrong," Pignatelli
said. "The evidence should bear out what the sentence should be,
not the letter of the law."

"I'm looking at this from a parental standpoint, as the parent of a
16-year-old," he said. "There are situations were kids are in the
wrong place at the wrong time, and if this was the first bone-headed
move they ever made, they should get a second chance."

Any legislative change to the 1989 school-zone drug law would require
passage in the House and Senate, along with the governor's
endorsement. The school-zone law has risen to the spotlight since
last September, when the Berkshire County Drug Task Force charged 18
teens and young adults with making drug deals in and around the
Taconic Lumber parking lot in Great Barrington. An undercover police
officer was in town steadily as one of the buyers, making drug deals
that led to the September arrests. Eventually, 17 people were charged
with a variety of drug-distribution crimes plus school-zone
violations. One teen was outside the school-zone area when she sold
a small amount of marijuana to an undercover police officer, and her
case was continued without a finding in District Court in March. One
repeat offender pleaded guilty earlier this month to multiple
cocaine-dealing charges and received a four-to six-year state prison
term. Last week, a mistrial was declared in the case of 18-year-old
Kyle Sawin, who faced three charges of selling marijuana, each time
in a school zone. It was the first case to go to trial, and the jury
was deadlocked over a defense claim of police entrapment. Sawin had
no prior record. The Taconic parking lot is in the heart of
downtown's commercial area, but within 1,000 feet of a local
preschool and the Searles/ Bryant school complex. The school-zone
charge is a discretionary one, but District Attorney David F.
Capeless has aggressively applied the law in Great Barrington and
elsewhere in the county, as did his predecessor, the late Gerard D.
Downing. However, in some instances, the school-zone charges have
been dropped in exchange for witness evidence in more serious crimes.
In the Sawin trial last week, two other defendants testified against
Sawin, stating openly that they hoped that their own drug-zone
charges would be dropped; however, both said they'd been given no
promises by the prosecution.

A South County citizens' group organized in recent months to pressure
Capeless to drop the school-zone charges against seven first-time
offenders among the larger Great Barrington group. Capeless has
refused, citing the school-zone law as an effective deterrent.

Pignatelli said he does not fault Capeless for his interpretation or
use of the law. The law itself should be addressed, he said.
Frederick A. Lantz, a spokesman for the district attorney's office,
said Capeless would decline to comment before seeing a formal
amendment from Pignatelli.

Pignatelli said Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice has not
asked him to intervene in the Legislature; the group has been
pressing Capeless publicly to show flexibility with the Great
Barrington first-time offenders. "Their focus has been more on
particular cases, with little to no emphasis on changing the law,"
Pignatelli said.

"But if you don't like the law, change the law, talk to legislators,
not the prosecutors. The direction of the future should be on the
legislators," he said Erik Bruun of Great Barrington, who was among
the early organizers of Citizens for Appropriate Justice, said he
supports the legislative proposal but agreed with Pignatelli that
there may be cases when a first-time offender deserves a harsh
punishment. The amended law would allow that, he said. He said
Capeless has the authority to use discretion with the school-zone
law, and in some cases has used it as a bargaining tool. But in some
of the Great Barrington cases, he said, the law is used "as a blunt,
harsh instrument."

Last week, after the mistrial was declared in the Sawin case, defense
lawyer Leonard H. Cohen said that the South County citizens' group
should shift its lobbying efforts toward legislative changes.

Former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis introduced the drug-free school-zone
law in 1989 in response to "an epidemic of drug dealers soliciting
young buyers in the vicinity of school property."

"Current events and recent studies, however, have shown that the
punishment .. may no longer serve the original purpose for which it
was created," said a research paper prepared by an aide to
Pignatelli. "While still useful as a tool for criminal prosecutors
throughout the state, the mandatory minimum now presents itself as
rigid and dated in most cases in which it is applicable."