In February of 1996, Ervin Darnell Worthy of Akron was told by a U.S. District Court Judge that he would be spending the rest of his life in prison.
Worthy was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute between five and 15 grams of cocaine, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an altered Serial Number.
Because of federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws and three previous felony convictions -two involving cocaine trafficking and one vehicular homicide -Worthy was sentenced to life in prison.
Worthy's lawyer asked the judge to depart from the sentencing guidelines, but the judge said he was bound by Congressional law.
It is absolutely my determination that I do not have the power to depart from a Congressional mandated minimum sentence
the judge said in response to a question from Worthy's lawyer.
Mandatory minimum sentences are one type of sentencing guideline that stipulate a minimum prison term for certain offenses. Mandatory minimum sentences are primarily used in crimes involving physical violence and/or drugs.
UNDER THE RADAR IN ATHENS
A hotly debated national issue, mandatory minimum sentencing has mostly flown under the radar in Athens County and the state of Ohio.
Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren said mandatory minimum sentencing in Athens is usually related to psilocybe mushrooms and cocaine. Students order mushrooms off the Internet from countries where they are legal and are arrested as soon as the mushrooms are delivered to them in the U.S., Warren said.
With all drugs, if the individuals possess over five times the bulk amount, a mandatory minimum sentence is applicable. Bulk amount is a certain amount of the drug that indicates that the drug is being possessed for trafficking purposes and not for personal use. Bulk amount and length of sentence based on bulk amount varies based on the drug possessed.
We have at least three cases a year where we end up sending students to the pen because they're over five times bulk Warren said of mushroom-related offenses in Athens. Warren estimates that another three students are sent to jail every year for cocaine-related offenses.
A QUESTION OF DISCRETION
J. Michael Westfall, director of the Athens County Branch of the Ohio Public Defender's Office, said sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences take away judicial discretion.
My comment on it would be we elect judges to exercise discretion and then when we pass laws to take away that discretion
that's not really a good thing
Westfall said. I'm of the mind that judges should be able to exercise discretion without having a chart telling them what to do.
Westfall, however, felt that the drug laws were more clear-cut than the general sentencing guidelines because there is a specific, numerical value for each drug. Westfall said sentencing guidelines are basically a chart of factors for a judge to consider during sentencing and many of these factors are highly debatable.
The factors on the sentencing chart range from questions as to the offender's motivation and the degree of injury imposed on the victim, among other things.
(Drug amounts) are more factual... either they're there or they're not and so that's kind of quantifiable
Westfall said of the drug-sentencing laws.
A MORE HONEST SYSTEM
Recent Supreme Court cases -Blakely v. Washington and U.S. v. Booker -have called into question the constitutionality of the general Ohio sentencing guidelines, Westfall said. The justices in the Blakely case found that unless the factors on a sentencing chart were found by a jury, they could not be used in sentencing.
This might cause the current Ohio system to be declared unconstitutional, Westfall said.
David Diroll, director of the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, which created the sentencing guidelines, said the guidelines were created to give judges more control over the sentencing process, to make the sentencing process more honest and to instill more regularity into prison populations.
(With previous sentencing laws) you had a public hearing and journalists reporting that a guy got 6-25 years when he was on the street in four... What (this law) did is when a judge says he wants you to go to prison for four years
he doesn't have to say 6-25
Diroll said. It's just a much more honest system... Judges have much more control over the time served.
Diroll said the Blakely case calls into question only federal laws, not the Ohio sentencing guidelines.
It calls into question the kinds of guidelines they have at the federal level... but we don't have those kinds of guidelines... Our sense is that the Booker case and the Blakely case aren't going to affect Ohio that much at all
Diroll said.
NOT LIKE THE CITIES
Diroll also said that mandatory minimum sentences for drugs see very little controversy in Ohio because the laws are structured such that no one disputes that bulk amount indicates trafficking, not personal use.
We made our drug sentencing law pretty flexible. It's the federal law that you hear about
Diroll said. Mandatory laws kick in at Ohio when basically nobody argues that this would be a personal use kind of thing.
Athens County Common Pleas Court Judge L. Alan Goldsberry said he had not used mandatory minimum sentencing enough to form a strong opinion on the issue.
We have mandatory minimum sentencing
but not very much. It's not like in the federal courts or in a larger metropolitan area
