Pubdate: Fri, 12 Apr 2002
Source: Big Sandy News, The (KY)
Copyright: 2002 The Big Sandy News
Contact:  http://www.bigsandynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1975
Author: Chris McDavid, Johnson County Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH LAW IS UNENFORCEABLE, ATTORNEY SAYS

PAINTSVILLE - An attorney for a Paintsville man charged with manufacturing 
methamphetamines is trying to prove state laws that established the offense 
are unconstitutional. Paintsville attorney James Barrett, the 
court-appointed attorney for Johnny F. Copley, filed a motion April 1 in 
Johnson Circuit Court for an order to declare portions of KRS 218A.1432 - 
the 1998 statute that established manufacturing methamphetamines as a crime 
- - unconstitutional. Copley was charged in July 2001 with manufacturing 
methamphetamines after state police and Sheriff Bill Witten executed a 
search warrant at the Highland Avenue home of Copley's father, James Milton 
Copley, who was also charged with trafficking drugs near a school. Both 
cases are scheduled for jury trials in Johnson Circuit Court on April 16. 
Barrett's motion says that the law pertaining to Johnny Copley's charge is 
unconstitutional "on the grounds that the statute as written is vague and 
overly broad and that its enforcement violates due process and equal 
protection clauses as well as the prohibition against cruel and unusual 
punishment." "In the case at hand," court records say, "the Commonwealth 
asserts that (Copley) possessed certain illegal products which were capable 
of being chemically altered and combined with other similarly altered legal 
products which would then result in the production of one or more chemicals 
which could be used in manufacturing methamphetamine." Barrett's motion 
also states that "every law-abiding citizen in the (state) is in possession 
of one or more of the items which law enforcement asserts is evidence of 
the manufacture of methamphetamine." For instance, the motion notes, a 
mechanic who possessed a case of engine cleaner, a bottle of Drano and a 
box of sudephedrine (a common sinus medication) could also be charged with 
manufacturing the deadly drug. The defense attorney's motion also cites 
Section 2 of the Kentucky Constitution which says, "absolute and arbitrary 
power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a 
republic, not even in the largest majority." As for the local attorney's 
assertion that the law violates state and federal prohibitions of cruel and 
excessive punishment, the motion notes that possession of certain 
ingredients for the production of methamphetamines can result in a ten to 
20-year jail sentence; while possession of crack carries up to a five-year 
sentence and cocaine traffickers would serve no more than ten years. A 
judge had not ruled on the motion as of Thursday afternoon, but a ruling 
will likely be issued before the start of Copley's trial next week.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom