PAIN SUFFERER GETS SURPRISE PARDON IN FLORIDA PILL CASE

Self-Medication

Family Cries and Begs, and Governor Tosses Trafficking Conviction

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Richard Paey, a victim in the war on drugs, was
granted a full, immediate and unexpected pardon by Florida Gov.
Charlie Crist and the Cabinet Thursday, allowing him to get out of
prison and be reunited with his family. Paey, 49, has spent the past 3
1/2 years in prison after he was convicted on drug trafficking charges
in a 1997 arrest for filling out fake prescriptions and possessing
about 700 Percocet narcotic painkillers. He was to be imprisoned for
25 years.

The catch: Everyone, including judges, acknowledged the traffic
accident victim was using the pills for debilitating pain. Since his
incarceration, prison doctors have hooked him up to a morphine drip,
which delivers more pain medication daily than he was convicted of
trafficking. The state's parole commission recommended denying
clemency for Paey, who was only seeking to have his prison sentence
commuted.

But after his lawyer, wife and four children wept and pleaded for
Paey's release, Crist and the Cabinet went further than Paey expected
by unanimously agreeing to grant him a full pardon, meaning he'll have
the right to vote and carry firearms.

They also acknowledged that the state's drug laws might be unfair.
"This is not a pleasant case," said Attorney General Bill McCollum,
who noted that he supported mandatory-minimum sentences when he was in
Congress. "Our laws are very much to blame."

But so are the prosecutors in Pasco County, said Paey's wife, Linda
Paey, who said she couldn't understand why they zealously pursued her
husband through three trials despite the widespread acknowledgement
that he was a pain victim and not a drug dealer.

"I've changed. I no longer trust the police. I don't trust the justice
system," she said.

"Only the media got our case right." Crist, too, took a swipe at the
prosecutors, saying the war on drugs itself isn't just to blame in
cases such as this.

"If they're prosecuted appropriately, then justice will be done," he
said. "Obviously, this case cries out for a review of that process."