Pubdate: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 Source: Post-Standard, The (NY) Copyright: 2000, Syracuse Post-Standard Contact: P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse, N.Y. 13221-4915 Website: http://www.syracuse.com/ Forum: http://www.syracuse.com/forums/ Author: Nicolas Eyle, executive director ReconsiDer: forum on drug policy THE DA DUEL To the Editor: I'd like to explain an important point overlooked in your otherwise excellent editorial (Failed Policy, 10.25.'00) on the Rockefeller Drug Laws. You correctly point out that a very small number of non-violent drug offenders are actually serving time under these laws and ask, "But if the justice system in effect is already evading the statutes, what purpose do they serve other than undermining respect for the law?" The purpose they serve is a major one. Critical to the continuation of our failed drug policy is the idea that very few drug cases actually go to trial. If all the drug offenders arrested demanded a jury trial ( their constitutional right), our legal system would grind to a halt in a week. Plea-bargaining is therefore essential to maintaining drug prohibition. When a non-violent drug offender is arrested, he is offered a chance to forego a jury trial and plead guilty to a lesser charge and go directly to prison. Should he choose to go to trial, the District Attorney would retract the offer of, say, three years for the lesser felony charge and charge him with a Rockefeller Drug Law felony carrying perhaps a 15 year to life sentence. Unless one has a reasonable chance at proving innocence, as well as money to buy good counsel, most suspects take what they see as the "easy way out," and plead guilty. Thus, the Rockefeller drug laws serve as a club held over the head of the suspect. This use of these harsh laws is what makes prosecutors so un-willing to support their repeal and promulgate the impression that they are hardly used. They are indeed used, and in the worst possible way: to deny the right of a jury trial to thousands of citizens a year, to artificially boost the "success rates" of prosecutors' anti-drug activities, and to make possible the continuation of a failed policy. This policy guarantees New Yorkers more years of increased drug availability and use at lower prices than ever before, while stripping them of their constitutional right to a trial. Nicolas Eyle, executive director ReconsiDer: forum on drug policy 205 Onondaga Ave. Syracuse, NY 13207-1439 Tel: (315)422.6231 Fax: (315)476.1773 email: www.reconsider.org - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom