KEATING URGED TO CUT SENTENCE

LEXINGTON -- In an historic vote Tuesday, the state Pardon and Parole Board
unanimously recommended the governor commute the sentence of a Kingfisher
man serving life without parole for drug trafficking. Three of five board
members voted to recommend that Larry E. Yarbrough's sentence be commuted
to 20 years in prison. That recommendation will be forwarded to Gov. Frank
Keating, who will make the final decision.

The two other board members -- Currie Ballard and Marc Dreyer -- voted to
commute Yarbrough's sentence to time served. Board members said Yarbrough's
sentence seemed harsh compared with other drug cases.

"It's just so out of line with everything else we see in here," said board
member Patrick Morgan, a former Oklahoma County prosecutor.

Of the 470 inmates in Oklahoma serving life without parole, only a dozen
were sentenced for drug trafficking, said Jerry Massie, state Department of
Corrections spokesman.

Dreyer also questioned the severity of punishment for a defendant convicted
of having just one ounce of powder cocaine.

"Looking across the state, it seems a little bit tipped," he said of
Yarbrough's sentence.

District Attorney Cathy Stocker disagreed with the board's assessment that
the punishment didn't fit the crime.

"My plan will be to protest to the governor," she said. "I feel the
citizens of our state feel very strongly that sentences in criminal cases
should mean what they say."

Officers found 28 grams of powder cocaine during a search of Yarbrough's
home in 1994. That amount -- coupled with five prior felony convictions in
1982 for unlawful delivery of LSD and marijuana -- meant Yarbrough could be
prosecuted under the state's drug trafficking law.

Jurors had no choice in 1997 but to sentence Yarbrough to life without
parole. The sentence is automatic for anyone convicted of drug trafficking
with two prior felony offenses involving controlled and dangerous substances.

E.A. "Ard" Gates, assistant district attorney in Kingfisher County, told
the board he could have reduced the charge against Yarbrough to possession
with intent to distribute.

"But I wouldn't have been doing my job, in my view," he said. "I viewed him
then, and I view him now, as a very dangerous man to our community."
Tuesday's special hearing for Yarbrough at the Joseph Harp Correctional
Center was the first time the board has considered commuting a
life-without-parole sentence for a nonviolent offender.

Kenny Goza, who handles pardon and parole issues for Keating, said Tuesday
it would be premature for the governor's office to comment on the Yarbrough
recommendation until his case is reviewed.

Massie said if the governor chooses to follow the board's recommendation
and commute Yarbrough's sentence to 20 years, it is unlikely he would be
released anytime soon.

Inmates convicted of drug trafficking are not eligible for the earned
credits which lead to early release, he said.