Summer 1999 – Issue 55 - Stanford Lawyer - Stanford University

THE orA PROSECUTOR WONDERS:Is the penalty just,just a penalty?SENTENCEGOESLIKETHISBY ADAM L. ROSMAN '95HE D EF END ANT is the guy standing 15 feettomy left. I'm the prosecutor. Six weeks ago, Iconvicted him ofPWID-Possession with Intentto Distribute-cocaine. VVllen the trial startedI said something like, "Ladies and gentleman ofthe jury"-sounding like an actor in a televisionshow-"the evidence will show that on thenight ofJune 12, 1997, that man"-and here Iwould have pointed at the defendant because the training peopletell us to do that. You have to point, they tell us, becauseifyou can't point,you can't convict. So I said, "that man," pointing,"sold crack cocaine. "It's six weeks later, and now the defendant needs to besentenced. The defense lawyer asks the judge to give his clientprobation, and then the defendant tells the judge, "I've learnedmy lesson this time, and now I know how dumb it is to getinvolved with drugs, Your Honor." The defendant stops, andthe judge turns to me and asks, "Does the government wishto be heard?" The judge knows the answer is yes, because thegovernment always has something to say at sentencing. So,"yes," I tell the judge, and then throw in, "just briefly, YourHonor," so the judge doesn't think I'm about to deliver a 20­minute monologue.I know a lot about the defendant, because during the trialI read his case jacket and talked to his probation officer, drugcounselor, some neighborhood people, others. I know abouthis education (high school), I know what he does for a living(cook in a local junior high school), I know who his girlfriendis (that's her sitting behind him), what his drug habits are (hetested positive for cocaine when he was arrested and admitsto marijuana use), his prior arrests (one PWID), the works. Ialso spoke to his lawyer, who, during a break in the trial, toldme, "My guy's not a bad guy-he just got mixed up with thewrong crowd. "I nodded slowly, like I knew what he was talkingabout, but I felt like saying, ''If your guy is such a goodguy, why was he selling dope two blocks from a schoo!?"Still, part ofme believed what the defense lawyersaid. Peer pressure, easy money-onewrong decision, cops in the rightplace, bam, locked up.So now it's my tum tosay something. "Your Honor,the defendant in this case hasbeen convicted of PWID cocaine."The sentence range forPWID is 0-30 years. It's unworkablebecause it's too big arange, and no one ever gets morethan five years for PWID anyway.The defendant is really lookingat probation-to-five-years.I look down at thePSR-Presentence Reportsittingon my table. It tells methings I already know: education,employment, priors, drugS SLIMMER 1999ILLUSTRATION BY !.IND" BLECJ...: