Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jun 2005
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2005 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author:  Elizabeth Benjamin

PATAKI DOUBTS DEAL ON DRUG LAW REFORM

ALBANY - The Senate and Assembly have reached a two-way deal that
would allow an estimated 500 more drug offenders incarcerated under
the Rockefeller Drug Laws to appeal their sentences and possibly leave
prison early.

But the measure's fate is uncertain because Gov. George Pataki said he
has "some concerns about it."

The bill applies to felons convicted of Class A2 crimes, the
second-highest level of drug offenses. These offenders were left out
of a three-way agreement between Pataki and legislative leaders last
December. The agreement did away with life sentences for both the
highest-level Class A1 crimes and A2 crimes, but allowed only A1
offenders to retroactively appeal for resentencing under the new
guidelines and have the chance to go free before serving all their
time.

The Senate and Assembly deal allows nonviolent A2 offenders currently
in prison and within 36 months of their first parole eligibility dates
to appeal their sentences and possibly be resentenced by a judge. The
state Department of Corrections estimates about 500 inmates would be
affected by this change.

The A2 bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday
afternoon; the Democrat-led Assembly followed suit Friday. The measure
will be sent to the governor and he can either sign it, veto it or
take no action and allow it to quietly become law.

Senate Republicans framed the bill as continued reform of the harsh
1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws, which mandated life sentences for selling
or possessing relatively small amounts of narcotics.

"I think this is the next logical step," said Sen. John DeFrancisco,
an Onondaga County Republican. "No one is going to be let out of jail
without a full hearing and without proof that it's the right thing,
. and it corrects some of the inflexible sentencing that we've been
having for years."

Democrats called the measure merely an incremental step that does come
close to fulfilling promises made by all sides last year to continue
working for more substantive changes to the laws.

"This is so minimal, so tiny, compared to what we should be doing in
this Legislature to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws," said Sen.
Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, who voted "no" on the bill, as he did on
the December deal, because he felt it didn't go far enough. "We had
all year to keep working on it, and this is the end result?"

Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, chair of the Assembly Correction
Committee and a longtime drug law reform advocate, agreed the bill
"isn't as aggressive as we would like it to be," but said it was the
extent of what the Senate was willing to do.

"Everything with Rockefeller Drug Law reform is hard," Aubry
said.

Earlier this year, Assembly Democrats introduced a bill designed to
return sentencing discretion to judges and allow low-level, nonviolent
drug offenders to be sent to substance abuse treatment rather than
prison.

This was an effort to help Class B offenders, who make up the majority
of drug felons in prison. But the Senate Republicans weren't interested.
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