MAN APPEALING 41-YEAR SENTENCE; SAYS INFORMATION WAS WITHHELD FROM JURY

After being sentenced to 41 years in prison for drug charges, Michael
Eugene Jackson, 21, is appealing the jury's decision. He said "mitigating
evidence" was not given to the jury.

"If Michael Jackson, with no prior offense, had been sentenced under the
voluntary sentencing guidelines -- a recommended 42 months -- he would be
approved for rehabilitation from drug addiction," said David Lewis Clark,
attorney for Jackson.

Jackson was one of about 40 persons arrested in an undercover drug
operation in Amity. He was arrested in October on charges of manufacturing
methamphetamine and delivering methamphetamine. Each charge carries a
sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison. But under Arkansas Voluntary
Sentencing Guidelines, if Jackson had pled guilty to the charges, he could
have been sentenced to as little as 42 months in prison or in an
alternative program such as drug rehabilitation.

Prosecuting Attorney Henry Morgan said that he refused to accept a plea
from Jackson because he knew the lesser sentence would be available, and
the case went to trail. During the trial, Jackson did not deny that he had
committed the crimes alleged, nor did he deny that he is addicted to
methamphetamine.

It took the jury less then five minutes to find him guilty. In the
sentencing phase, it took the 12 jurors more than half an hour to decide to
give the 21-year-old father of two children 20 years for delivery and 21
years for manufacturing.

In the sentencing testimony, the prosecutor, under the Truth in Sentence
Law, is allowed to tell the jury when a person will be eligible for parole.
Jackson is required to serve about 20 years of the 41-year sentence, and he
will not be released until he is 41. Clark said that is just the
"half-truth" in sentencing law, because he is not allowed to mention the
voluntary sentencing guidelines.

"The jury was reacting without any perspective on the amount of appropriate
punishment," Clark said. "In federal court he would have gotten at most a
year or two for the same things. He may have even been eligible for parole."

Because Arkansas law prohibits mentioning the voluntary sentencing
guidelines to the jury, Jackson's appeal challenges the constitutionality
of the Arkansas law. Clark said the law is supposed to provide "equal
protection and equal punishment," which he claims Jackson did not get.

"Whether we win the appeal or not, this is an issue that ought to be
righted," he said. "Why keep this information from the jury? It just
doesn't make sense. All it does is increase the power of the state and the
prosecutor to the point that they can offer any kind of deal."

Morgan said that he works to find a sentence that will offer a person a
chance to turn around his life. He said to him, that means longer prison
sentences and required rehabilitation programs. He said that he often
agrees to suspend as much as five years of a sentence, if the prisoner
completes his GED and receives vocational training. In drug sentences, he
said, he routinely requires the completion of a drug treatment program.

"We try to figure out some angle to give a person a chance to turn their
life around."

Jackson's appeal was filed on Feb. 20. On March 5, Circuit Judge John
Thomas granted Jackson's petition to proceed in forma pauperis, which means
he will not have to pay court fees in the pending appeal and could be
provided with a public defender. Jackson's case will now go to the Arkansas
Court of Appeals, but a decision on the matter could be as much as a year away.