EASING OF NEW YORK DRUG LAWS TAKES EFFECT

As a new law meant to ease the effects of New York's strict drug laws goes
into full effect today, prosecutors, defense lawyers, prisoners and their
families are still struggling to figure out how the complex law will work,
whom it will help and how soon. One thing they all agree on is that the
process is only beginning.

Outside Poughkeepsie, Thomas J. Whalen is trying to make sure that asking a
court for a new sentence will be the fastest route to freedom for his
longtime client, Roberto Charris, who has been in prison since 1989 serving
a 20-year sentence for drug possession.

Near Niagara Falls, Miguel Ortiz Garcia is looking for help in determining
whether the new law will affect his sister, Lydia Ortiz, given the
complications of her case (among other things, she fled before her trial,
was convicted in absentia and is now serving a sentence of 25 years to life).

And in Manhattan, where the drug laws appear likely to be a political issue
in the race for district attorney this fall, prosecutors are reviewing
files to see which prisoners they will fight to keep incarcerated.

The new law, signed by Gov. George E. Pataki last month, reduces the
mandatory sentences enacted in 1973 at the behest of Gov. Nelson A.
Rockefeller. Now, rather than a mandatory sentence of at least 15 years to
life, first-time offenders could get as little as eight years and,
depending on their circumstances, could be out of prison in less than four
years on work-release.

Prisoners who were sentenced to the longest terms can also ask to be
resentenced under the new rules. In theory, at least, that could mean
immediate release for some of the 446 prisoners, known as A-1 offenders.

These prisoners "want to get out that day," said Randy Credico, director of
the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, which organized
prisoners' families to lobby for changing the drug laws. He said he was
being flooded with letters from convicts seeking help and advice on getting
out of prison as soon as possible, some from lower-level offenders who are
not eligible for resentencing.

The procedures required by the new law are complex and may end up being
time-consuming, prosecutors and defense lawyers say. A prisoner with a
previous conviction for committing a violent felony, for example, could
actually receive a longer sentence.

A resentencing could also involve a protracted set of hearings, especially
if the district attorneys who won the original convictions oppose granting
shorter sentences. There may be disputes over whether an offender was
really a low-level dealer or addict who happened to be caught with a large
amount of drugs - the people the new law is supposed to help - or was
really a big-time dealer or distributor.

So in at least a few cases, like that of Mr. Whalen's client, Mr. Charris,
there is the possibility that applying for parole might result in a faster
release than a resentencing.

"Some cases will move pretty quickly, but others are a little more
complicated, and we'll have to take our time with them," said Alfred A.
O'Connor, a lawyer with the New York State Defenders Association, which is
advising public defenders outside New York City on how to handle
resentencing cases. "There's a lot of excitement right now," he added, "but
the feeling is, let's do it right" rather than fast.

Last month, the State Department of Correctional Services posted a memo on
the new law in its prisons and made copies available to interested inmates
and their lawyers; yesterday, it started distributing a Spanish-language
version of the memo.

Some prisoners have already filed resentencing motions without waiting for
a lawyer; the city's special narcotics prosecutor, Bridget G. Brennan, said
her office had received three of these.

Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said his staff was
checking case files and reviewing grand jury minutes to decide how to
respond to requests for resentencings. As a policy, his office generally
did not charge first-time offenders with the crimes carrying the stiffest
sentences, he said, so "we have very few that come under the rubric of
overly harsh."

Leslie Crocker Snyder, a former judge who is expected to run against Mr.
Morgenthau this fall, has criticized him for being slow to come out against
the drug laws, which he did last March. Now that he has, he was asked
yesterday, might he not be criticized for opposing resentencings?

"Free country," Mr. Morgenthau said.