Pubdate: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: David Kravets, Associated Press DRUG TRIAL RULING TO BE REVISITED Decision Wiped Out Law That Gave Judges Power To Increase Sentences At the request of every U.S. attorney in the West, a federal appeals court in San Francisco agreed late Friday to revisit a ruling that in August wiped out a major drug-sentencing statute created during the Reagan administration's war against drugs. The court agreed to rehear the three-judge panel's decision with 11 judges. In an unusually expedited manner, the circuit set oral arguments here for Sept. 29. Every federal public defender in the circuit that covers nine western states opposed the rehearing. In August, the judges found that a 1984 drug-sentencing law unconstitutionally allowed a judge, rather than a jury, to increase prison sentences based on the quantity of drugs found. The case involved Calvin Buckland, who received a 27-year sentence for possessing 17 pounds of methamphetamine in Seattle. The circuit panel said that because the jury was never asked to find how much of the drug was seized, the judge could not automatically increase his sentence by seven years based on his own conclusions on the amount of drugs discovered. Prosecutors, in their appeal, said the decision could affect thousands of drug defendants whose sentences were enhanced by a judge without a jury determining how much drugs were discovered. The circuit decision covers federal drug prosecutions in California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii. Defense attorneys said the case was in line with a June Supreme Court ruling that found a defendant was entitled to a jury decision, not a judge's, on whether he acted out of racial bias in an alleged hate crime. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake