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Clearing
the Air
Albany
County District Attorney Paul A. Clyne will discuss New York’s
Rockefeller drug laws on an upcoming broadcast of the nationally
syndicated radio talk show Fresh Air.
Clyne, a member of the New York State District Attorneys Association’s
executive committee, said he was invited to the show to speak
from a prosecutor’s perspective about a recently released
book that is highly critical of New York’s Rockefeller drug
laws, often described as “arcane” and “draconian.” Critics
say the book, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of
Elaine Bartlett, penned by Village Voice writer
Jennifer Gonnerman, paints a chilling picture of how harshly
the much-maligned drug laws can affect the lives of first-time
offenders.
Life
on the Outside recounts the arrest, trial and attempted
reentry into society of Elaine Bartlett, a New York City woman
arrested in Albany County in 1983 for selling 4 ounces of
cocaine to undercover police officers. As a first-time offender
convicted of an A-1 drug felony, Bartlett faced a mandatory
minimum sentence of 15 years in jail. Under the Rockefeller
statutes, she could have received life in prison but was sentenced
to 20 at the judge’s discretion. But following a review of
her case, Gov. George E. Pataki granted Bartlett clemency
in 1999.
While many critics of the drug laws point to cases like Bartlett’s
as evidence that the three-decades-old statutes need reform,
Clyne said the case is actually an aberration. Of all criminal
prosecutions tried under New York’s Rockefeller drug laws,
those similar to Bartlett’s account for only a handful, said
Clyne, whose father sentenced Bartlett.
“There
probably is some merit to the argument that mandatory sentencing
for first-time, A-1 felonies may lead to unjust penalties
in some cases, but that is not where the battleground [for
reform] is being fought,” Clyne said. “That’s not where the
reformers want to end.” Clyne noted a proposal in the Assembly’s
drug-law-reform bill that would allow judges discretion when
sentencing repeat felony offenders in drug cases. Clyne said
this proposal would unfairly exempt repeat felony offenders
from mandatory sentencing only in drug cases, when New York’s
criminal law doles out such punishment for other non-drug-related
repeat felony offenders.
“If
the objective is to do something about A-1 felonies in drug
cases, we can probably work something out,” Clyne said. “But
if you want to say that drug cases should be treated differently
than other felonies, than I think you’ve got a little bit
of a problem there.”
But Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry (D-Queens), who sponsored
a drug-law-reform bill that passed the state Assembly on April
14, said Clyne’s opinion represents the fundamental divergence
of opinion over who should have discretion when sentencing
convicted drug offenders.
“[Our
bill] allows DAs first shot at discretion so that they’re
not losing that opportunity,” Aubry said. “But the bill also
allows the judges to have the ability to make a judgment about
that case beyond what the DA might do. And, in the separation
of powers between a judge and a district attorney, I think
that is appropriate.”
Aubry said that any issues needing resolution—one of which
will be judges’ discretion in sentencing drug cases—will be
ironed out when Senate and Assembly committees meet next week
to come up with a compromise bill to send to the governor.
The broadcast of Clyne’s interview can be heard locally on
WAMC-FM (90.3 FM, Albany), but as of press time Wednesday,
there was no specific date for the broadcast. Fresh Air
can be heard weeknights on WAMC at 7 PM, and archives can
be found on the show’s Web site, http://freshair.npr.org.
—Travis
Durfee
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Columns
& Opinions
