RULING COULD HELP REPUTED DRUG LORD REDUCE LONG SENTENCE

The U.S. Supreme Court's major ruling on federal sentencing guidelines
Wednesday could affect hundreds of South Florida convicts with pending
sentences or appeals -- including the 205-year prison term for reputed
Miami cocaine kingpin Sal Magluta.

The high court's decision came at a good time for Magluta, who is
already serving his time. Oral arguments on the appeal of his sentence
are set for Friday.

In 2003, federal jurors convicted Magluta of a dozen counts of
obstruction of justice, jury bribery and laundering about $15 million
in drug profits. But they acquitted him of the most serious charges:
using laundered money to pay for the murder of three witnesses.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Magluta faced 20 years on those
convictions, his lawyers argued.

But U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz of Miami said she was allowed
to enhance the sentence if she determined by a "preponderance of the
evidence" -- not the higher jury standard of "beyond a reasonable
doubt" -- that Magluta used drug proceeds to pay off hit men.

She ruled against Magluta, and added the payoff money to other dirty
funds -- for a total of $65 million. Under the mandatory sentencing
guidelines, that total amount allowed her to lengthen Magluta's
sentence tenfold, she said.

The Supreme Court's ruling that sentencing guidelines should be
advisory, not mandatory, could affect Magluta's appeal.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Benson Weintraub, who represented Magluta
during the sentencing part of his federal case, said it comes down to
whether Seitz acted reasonably.

"These grossly disparate dollar amounts artificially enhanced the
sentence from about 20 years or less to the sentence Judge Seitz
erroneously imposed -- arrived at through a process now condemned by
the Supreme Court," he said.