Pubdate: Wed, 27 Feb 2002
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Copyright: 2002 East Valley Tribune
Contact:  http://www.aztrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1795
Author: Gary Grado
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

CONVICT'S HOPES HIGH FOR RELEASE

John Wigglesworth's hopes for early release from prison soared when a state 
board recommended in 1995 that his life sentence on drug charges be reduced 
to eight years.

His hopes were dashed two months later when then-Gov. Fife Symington 
decided that he deserved life. Instead of a potential release date of Dec. 
8, 2001, Wigglesworth was looking at jail with no parole until 2018. He was 
not alone.

Wigglesworth was one of an estimated 2,000 inmates who applied to the board 
for clemency. The panel had been established by lawmakers to review 
sentences under the state's mandatory sentencing law.

The board unanimously recommended reductions for 195 inmates. But Symington 
decided that only 16 of the requests for clemency had merit. He rejected 
the rest, shutting the door on prisoners deemed to have been unjustly treated.

At least one member of the board called Symington's action shameful.

Now, Wigglesworth, 36, is allowing himself to dream again of the day he may 
be free, after a court ruled last week that Symington bungled the paperwork 
to keep inmates like him in prison.

"I'm elated, what more can I say. If everything goes OK, I'll be going home 
to my family soon," he said. And what of Symington?

"I wasn't mad at the governor for doing what he thought he had to do," 
Wigglesworth said, although he admitted being surprised that the governor 
rejected so many requests.

And he also allows that the governor's tough stand has taken its toll on him.

"It's not hard for negativity to enter your life in here," he said of his 
time in prison. "But my outlook is not harsh anyway."

Wigglesworth's new hope is based on the case of Kevin McDonald, whose 
request for clemency was also rejected by Symington. The Arizona Supreme 
Court found last week that Symington's signature on the denial document in 
the McDonald case was not attested to by the secretary of state and the 
signature is illegible. The court ordered McDonald released.

Symington has defended his decision, saying in a statement:

"Any unsuccessful petition was regretfully denied because granting it would 
have increased the risk of further victimization of innocent people."

The Arizona Attorney General's Office is currently reviewing the files of 
the other inmates whose requests were rejected by Symington. A spokesman 
said the office would not oppose the release of inmates under circumstances 
similar to those of McDonald, who also was serving a life sentence.

Wigglesworth said his greatest pain has been not seeing his three teenage 
children and other family members for the last five years. "People move 
on," he said. "So that's some indication that you're just kind of stuck."

Wigglesworth knew there was a chance he would go to prison for life on drug 
charges as he stood in Pima County Superior Court in 1994, but he still 
wasn't prepared when a judge gave him the sentence.

"You don't expect to lose your life unless you take a life," Wigglesworth 
said from Arizona State Prison in Douglas.

He compared the experience of hearing "life" to losing a loved one. He was 
convicted of money laundering and possessing 18 grams of crack cocaine and 
224 grams of powdered cocaine for sale. Under the sentencing laws at the 
time, the trial judge was obligated to put Wigglesworth away for 25 years 
to life for each count because he was on parole at the time of his arrest, 
so he gave him three concurrent sentences, said Wigglesworth's appeals 
attorney, Michael Burke.

"The trial judge said at the time he felt it was a hardship, but the state 
left him no options," Burke said.

That same year, the law changed to allow the Executive Board of Clemency to 
recommend reductions to the governor for prisoners whose sentences were 
deemed unduly harsh.

"A very conservative Arizona Legislature passed this law in 1994 to bring 
some justice to some sentences that were far out of line," said Phoenix 
defense attorney Larry Hammond, who works with the Justice Project, a 
4-year-old nonprofit group that helps inmates who are victims of clear and 
unmistakable injustice.

When he gets out, Wigglesworth said he plans "to do some catching up" with 
his children, who are 13, 15 and 19 years old, talk endlessly with his 
mother and apply for barber school to get a license for a skill he learned 
in prison. "I've been cutting hair for what seems like forever," he said. 
"It's kind of what I'm known for in here."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Ariel