JUDGE BANISHES MAN FROM ALL BUT ONE COUNTY

CONYERS (AP) - A Rockdale County judge has ordered that a man sentenced for
selling cocaine be banished from most of the state for life. Chief Superior
Court Judge Sidney Nation sentenced Larry Nathan Coleman to serve 10 years
in prison and also ordered that he can live only in Lowndes County as a
free man, or else leave the state. "As a practical matter, you come back in
the state anytime for the rest of your life and you go to jail," Nation
told the 57-year-old defendant. "When you get out of prison, you leave the
state." Since 1877, The state constitution has prohibited banishing
criminals from the state. However, people can still be banished from
certain counties, so some judges banish defendants from 158 of the 159
counties to encourage convicts to leave Georgia. Coleman was sentenced to
serve the first 10 years of a 40-year sentence on two separate counts of
sale of cocaine and 10 years on a 30-year sentence for possession of
cocaine, with the sentences to run concurrently. Nation also banished
Deyagius Montrell Neal from Rockdale County for the duration of his
sentence on a charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
Neal, 19, was sentenced to serve the first five years of a 30-year sentence
and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. The judge considered the fact that the
teenager had no prior criminal history. "You sell cocaine and you go beyond
the pale in my book, and you could be going to prison for a long, long
time," said Nation. "You are headed down the wrong path, and now is the
time to stop."