ASHCROFT TARGETS JUDGES WHO GIVE LIGHTER SENTENCES

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft wants prosecutors to closely
monitor which judges impose more lenient sentences than federal guidelines
recommend, a step some critics say could limit judicial independence.

Ashcroft directed U.S. attorneys nationwide to promptly report to Justice
Department headquarters when a sentence is a "downward departure" from
guidelines and not part of a plea agreement in exchange for cooperation.

"The Department of Justice has a solemn obligation to ensure that laws
concerning criminal sentencing are faithfully, fairly and consistently
enforced," Ashcroft wrote in the memo issued July 28.

Critics say the result will be more power in the hands of prosecutors and
impermissible restraints on judicial discretion.

It's telling judges who want to depart from the guidelines "that you will
be put on a list and you will be watched," said Ryan King, research
associate with The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group seeking
alternatives to prison. "We're no longer judging a case on the merits."

Prosecutors were told in Ashcroft's memo to make sure the government is
prepared to appeal more of these sentences if such a decision is made by
lawyers in Solicitor General Theodore Olson's office. The upshot is that
more decisions to appeal will be made at "main Justice" in Washington
rather than left to prosecutors in the field.

Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the intent is to "get an
accurate reporting of how the sentencing guidelines are being applied."

"It is an effort to make sure that someone who is convicted of a crime in
California is treated no differently than a person who is convicted of the
exact same crime in Massachusetts," Corallo said Thursday.

The sentencing guidelines were developed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission,
created by Congress in 1984 to reduce disparities in sentences imposed
around the country - subject to some judicial flexibility.

The memo, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is part of a Justice
Department effort to implement a law passed by Congress earlier this year
intended to bring even greater uniformity to federal prison sentences.

President Bush in April signed into law the wide-ranging child protection
legislation that, among other things, will establish a national "Amber
Alert" communications network to respond to child abductions.

Tucked into that measure was a provision sponsored by Rep. Tom Feeney,
R-Fla., intended to make it more difficult for federal judges to depart
from federal sentencing guidelines and easier to appeal light sentences.

Prosecutors have complained for years that judges have too much leeway in
imposing sentences. According to the most recent statistics, federal judges
in 2001 departed from sentencing guidelines in about 35 percent of cases.
About half those cases involved plea bargains endorsed by prosecutors.