Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2017
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2017 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Jan Ransom

BAKER PROPOSES MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE FOR DRUG DEALERS - THE BOSTON

Seeking to crack down on the suppliers behind the state's lethal
opioid crisis, Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday filed a broad
legislative package that would create a new manslaughter charge for
drug dealers whose product causes a death.

Under Baker's plan, dealers would face a mandatory minimum of five
years for selling any drugs that result in a fatality.

"When illegal drug distribution causes a death, laws that were
designed to punish the act are inadequate to recognize the seriousness
of the resulting harm," Baker wrote in a letter to state lawmakers in
support of the legislation. "In order to ensure that accountability,
this legislation establishes enhanced penalties that directly target
those who cause death by illegally selling drugs."

Nearly 2,000 people were believed to have died from opioid overdoses
in Massachusetts in 2016. The drug has caused the deaths of 978 people
in the first half of 2017, a 5 percent drop from the same span last
year.

The new manslaughter charge is among several proposals aimed at
curbing the state's opioid epidemic, some of which mirror legislation
pending before state lawmakers. Baker, state officials, police chiefs,
and prosecutors announced the plan Wednesday at a news conference at
the Gavin Foundation's Devine Recovery Center in South Boston.

"As society keeps seeing evolving public safety threats like dangerous
drugs fueling the opioid epidemic and gang violence in our
communities, it is critical that our laws give law enforcement the
appropriate tools and enforcement measures to keep everyone safe,"
Baker said.

Baker said his proposal would hold drug dealers to the same legal
standard as those who kill someone while driving under the influence.
Some Massachusetts prosecutors have filed manslaughter and similar
charges in drug dealing cases and won convictions, but Baker said the
new proposal would establish a standard.

"These are smart solutions to dangerous crimes the people of the
Commonwealth face every day," said Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes,
president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police
Association.

Baker said he expects the bill will be debated when legislators return
from summer recess after Labor Day. But some lawmakers and advocates
expressed concerns about aspects of the Baker approach.

State Senator William N. Brownsberger, Senate chairman of the Joint
Committee on the Judiciary, said he has not taken a position on the
bill and acknowledged the manslaughter proposal will be "the most
difficult to figure out."

"If you lost someone to a drug overdose, then it makes a lot of sense
to try to get some accountability, but there's a huge downside," he
said. "We have to think very carefully about the unintended
consequences."

Brownsberger said he wants to make sure that legislation doesn't
discourage people from calling 911 to report an overdose for fear they
might face criminal prosecution.

State Representative Russell Holmes, a Mattapan Democrat, said he
thinks the bill goes too far.

"How do you know it was that person's drugs that killed the person?"
he said. "I'm not agreeing with that."

Critics worry that people selling small quantities of drugs to feed an
addiction might end up in jail.

"Incarceration of people with drug addiction continues to scar them
and not help the problem," said Lew Finfer, a spokesman for Jobs Not
Jails, a coalition of labor, community, and religious groups pushing
for an overhaul of criminal laws. "We need to make sure we're doing it
right; not adding to mass incarceration."

Maryanne Frangules, executive director of the Massachusetts
Organization for Addiction Recovery, shared similar concerns.

"Our feeling on mandatory minimums is you need to have the ability to
look at mitigating circumstances," Frangules said. "We don't want
carfentanil and people making this stuff out there, but I'm not sure
mandatory minimums is the answer."

Defense attorneys praised Baker's efforts to tackle the opioid crisis
but worried that mandatory minimum sentences could wind up
criminalizing drug addiction.

"The intent is good," said Martin W. Healy, chief legal counsel to the
Massachusetts Bar Association. "We hope this is targeted more to
actual traffickers, instead of low-level dealers who are addicts
themselves."

Other states that have similar legislation include New Hampshire and
Florida. In New York, prosecutors have used similar strategies. And
legislators in Maine and Maryland are also considering it.

The Baker bill would also link state drug classifications, except for
marijuana, to federal standards to allow law enforcement and
prosecutors to respond quickly to the influx of new synthetic drugs
like carfentanil.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan, president of the
Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, did not address the
manslaughter proposal, but lauded Baker's plan to make murder-for-hire
a felony, punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison.

The proposal also seeks to address a loophole in the state's witness
protection laws to cover retaliation against a witness before and
after trial. It would also extend protection services to a witness's
family, court staff, and law enforcement.

"This bill contains many common sense changes which provide that those
who help to ensure the public safety through their participation in
the criminal justice process, as well as their loved ones, are
protected from retaliation even when the case is over," Ryan said in a
statement.

Aretha Mauge's son, Devonte Mauge-Franklin, 16, was stabbed to death
on an MBTA bus in 2008. She said there were many people who witnessed
her son's murder, but no one stepped forward. No arrests have been
made in his death.

"We need more support for people to come out," she said. "We have to
protect our witnesses, if we don't our stuff will go unsolved."
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MAP posted-by: Matt