MISTRIAL PRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY

It cannot be said with certainty why the jury hearing the case of
Kyle Sawin of Otis, the first of the so-called Great Barrington 16
faced with drug-dealing charges in the Taconic parking lot to be
tried, could not reach a verdict, resulting in yesterday's mistrial
at Berkshire Superior Court. It can be said that what might have
been seen as a routine case was complicated by the mandatory two-year
jail sentence facing Mr. Sawin. That could, and should, give anyone pause.

When John Rybacki, 18, and Justin Cronin, 19, former classmates of
the 18-year-old Mr. Sawin at Monument Mountain Regional High School,
testified that they purchased marijuana at various times from Mr.
Swain, it provided defense attorney Judith Knight with the
opportunity to bring out that Mr. Swain faced a mandatory two-year
sentence for dealing drugs within a school zone. Both Mr. Rybacki and
Mr. Cronin admitted they hoped the school-zone charges would be
dropped in exchange for their testimony.

Juries should not, at least in theory, be influenced by the
consequences of a conviction, and maybe the jurors were not. But the
school-zone law is an elephant in the room too large to ignore. The
school-zone law is fatally flawed on a number of counts.

It does not give judges adequate discretion in sentencing. It fails
to make a distinction between first and habitual offenders or the
amount of drugs sold. It's obvious intent was to prevent dealers
from selling drugs to schoolchildren, but no children were
jeopardized here. While the Taconic lot is within 1,000-feet of the
Great Barrington Co-operative Preschool and the Searles/Bryant School
complex, which made the law applicable in these cases, the
undercover operation took place during the summer and no children
were targeted. The drug in question is marijuana, which may or may
not be a starter drug for more dangerous substances depending on
which study you read. But it isn't heroin or crack, two drugs that
have been killing people in Berkshire County. The Sawin case must be
retried, and if this trial was a harbinger of things to come,
than District Attorney David Capeless must ask himself if the
pursuit of the Great Barrington defendants is the best way for him
to use his manpower and resources in light of other criminal problems
facing the Berkshires. The school-zone law is intimidating enough to
produce plea bargains, which can eliminate trials and produce
reasonable sentences in the bargain.

This is a better way of using the law, a law that should not be
brought against first-time marijuana dealers in any case.

No one disputes that drug dealing is a crime.

But the punishment under the school-zone law does not fit the crime.

Some combination of probation, counseling and community service would
constitute an appropriate form of punishment that won't ruin the
lives of young people who have made mistakes.

In the wake of the first Great Barrington trial, this is the route to take.