To the Editor:

I write on behalf of 37 other direct descendants of Nelson A. Rockefeller.
Thirty-two years ago, as governor of New York, he signed what have become
known as the Rockefeller drug laws.

As members of the Rockefeller family, we are proud to be associated with so
many of the legacies of Governor Rockefeller, who dedicated his life to
serving the people of New York and the country. The laws he put into place
32 years ago were meant to combat the destructive forces of drug abuse and
the drug trade. Unfortunately, these laws have proved extremely costly and
have not produced the desired results.

We are confident that if Governor Rockefeller were alive today and privy to
the data that now exist, he would agree that three immediate reforms are
desperately needed: first, ending mandatory minimum sentences; second,
ending weight-based sentencing for drug crimes, with judicial focus on
punishing drug kingpins; and third, providing financing for alternatives to
incarceration.

New York legislators have begun to reform these anachronistic and
counterproductive drug laws. They now need to complete what they have started.

Clay Rockefeller

Providence, R.I., May 22, 2005