Pubdate: 12 Jan. 1998
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact:  http://chicagotribune.com
Author: Steve Johnson
Section: Tempo

CHANNEL SURFING

"Frontline: Snitches": If ever a TV program is going to make you decide to
stop hanging out with crack dealers, this is the one. Producer Ofra
Bikel,who has done lengthy debunkings of child-sex-abuse prosecutions for
"Frontline," returns to the hysteria beat. This time (9 p.m., WTTW-Ch. 11),
she examines the way the federal "drug war" brought in illogical and
inflexible sentencing rules that, she argues, have taken power in the
judicial system away from judges and handed it to prosecutors. Because the
only way for one drug figure to escape the mandatory minimums is by ratting
out others, almost one in three federal drug defendants in the last five
years has earned sentence reductions this way. Bikel's compelling argument
is that the mixture of almost unchecked prosecutorial authority and an
unskeptical reliance on stories told by the inherently unreliable is
corrupting the judicial system.

The argument is carefully developed through the revisiting of several
shocking cases, in which prosecutors go after small fish -- drug dealers'
mothers, cousins, even lawyers -- either to pressure them into testifying
or because the big fish snitched first.

One promising young Alabama man gets three consecutive life sentences for
arranging a meeting between supplier and dealer, while the more culpable
parties in the deal, who all decided to point to him, served minimal or no
sentences. In this chilling context, the defenders of mandatory minimum
sentences, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), sound like they are merely
offering simplistic platitudes about protecting kids. What Bikel does not
address directly are the racial undertones to it all, although her examples
are deeply disquieting, especially the one of a poor black Alabama town
where prosecutors went after 70 people on conspiracy charges when a busted
local dealer started pointing the finger.

An invaluable followup to these 90 unsettling minutes would be a detailed
look at race and drug prosecutions.

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