Pubdate: Wed, 20 Dec 2000
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  901 Mission St., San Francisco CA 94103
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Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
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Author: Debra J. Saunders
Cited: Coalition for Jubilee Clemency http://www.cjpf.org/clemency/
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation  http://www.cjpf.org/
Related: A few of the items about Kemba Smith
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n786/a04.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n853/a02.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n219/a03.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n592/a02.html

'TIS THE SEASON TO FREE NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENDERS

THIS SHOULD be the perfect time for President Clinton to commute the
sentences of low-level nonviolent drug offenders in federal prison. Clinton
recently told Rolling Stone magazine that drug sentences "in many cases are
too long for nonviolent offenders" and that federal mandatory minimum laws,
which often force judges to mete out harsh sentences to low-level drug
offenders, need to be "re-examined."

He told Rolling Stone it was too late for him to act. Wrong. The Chief can
offer more than cheap talk by commuting the sentences of prisoners whose
sentences far outweigh their crimes. Clinton should free inmates serving
hard time because heavy-handed conspiracy laws can put them away, not only
for their small-time deeds, but also for the big deals, which they didn't
control, of their higher-ups.

Toward that end, the newly formed Coalition for Jubilee Clemency sent a
letter, signed by some 600 religious leaders, asking Clinton to release on
supervised parole thousands of nonviolent, low-level federal drug offenders
who have served five years.

Eric Sterling of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation has shone a
spotlight on cases in which small fish did big-fish time while prosecutors
let their kingpins serve lesser sentences. In 1995, Alabaman Dorothy Gaines
was sentenced to 19 years because she didn't turn on her crack dealer
boyfriend; the drug ring's leader is due for release around 2004. Dorothy
Gaines should be allowed to walk out of prison before her drug kingpin walks.

Clinton could ask federal judges -- there are more than 600 -- to name a
case over which they lost sleep because the sentence far outstripped the
offense. Or he could commute the thousands of sentences for first-time,
nonviolent, low-level drug offenders.

These low-level offenders are being forced to compete with high-profile
bids for presidential clemency. The Left, for example, wants Clinton to
free convicted killer and former FBI agent Leonard Peltier, just as Clinton
freed 12 Puerto Rican terrorists last year. Peltier, they say, is a
political prisoner; he has cachet.

For their part, the drug offenders Jubilee seeks to free are basically a
bunch of suckers. As former Department of Justice pardon attorney Margaret
Love explained, "These are little inconsequential people, who played minor
roles in conspiracy offenses and who were hit very hard."

It doesn't help the Jubilee effort that many member clergy apparently are
hard-of-hearing lefties who sign every letter for every hug-a-thug cause.
Asked why he signed the nonviolent drug-offender clemency letter, a San
Francisco minister told me, "Because I don't believe in capital
punishment." A Berkeley minister answered, "There is no evidence that
Leonard Peltier shot anyone." Which isn't true.

So let Amy Pofahl speak of mercy. Pofahl was sentenced to 24 years because
her husband, who cut a deal with the feds, was an Ecstasy kingpin. Clinton
commuted Pofahl's sentence in July -- after she had served nine long years
in prison.

"Every one of these people will walk out the door when their sentence ends
anyway," Pofahl noted. They can walk out whole, or with the wear that comes
from spending too many years behind bars.

Sterling cites federal statistics showing that 28 percent of federal drug 
prisoners had no prior criminal record. "The young and inexperienced are 
the easiest to take down," he noted. A drug kingpin can name many contacts, 
while spouses, girlfriends and messengers don't have the goods on many people.

Kemba Smith, 29, fits the profile. In 1995, a federal judge sentenced her
to 24 1/2 years in prison because she had "aided and abetted" her
by-then-dead boyfriend's drug operation. If he had lived, she could have
turned on him and walked. Because he died, and she couldn't or wouldn't
turn on other dealers, she is doing longer time than many rapists and
murderers.

She should be spending Christmas with her parents and son. She already has
served years of her sentence. And unlike the FBI killer and FALN
terrorists, there is nothing tying Smith to senseless violence. She
deserves mercy. Or is Kemba Smith too insignificant in Bill Clinton's
America to find it?
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