Pubdate: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Lindsay Kines, Victoria Times Colonist Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) JUSTICE SYSTEMS VASTLY DIFFERENT It's a quick trip across Juan de Fuca Strait, and an even faster one through the U.S. justice system for those who get caught. Marijuana smugglers familiar with the slow pace of justice in Canada must get whiplash going through the U.S. courts. One minute they're in a boat loaded with hockey bags full of B.C. bud; the next they're doing three years in a U.S. federal penitentiary. Turnaround time from arrest to sentence? Five months. Michael Dewayne Morcom learned that the hard way. On Sept. 25, 2003, the 41-year-old Duncan resident was picked up in a black Zodiac heading from Mill Bay to Roche Harbour, Wash. The boat was loaded with several large hockey and nylon sport bags containing 314 vacuum-sealed plastic bags of marijuana. The bud weighed in at about 125 kilograms with a wholesale value of at least $850,000 US. Less than five months later, on Feb. 13, John McKay, the U.S. district attorney for the Western District of Washington, announced that Morcom had been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Morcom, who declined a request for an interview, is serving his time at a federal penitentiary in Lompoc, Calif. McKay said Morcom, who was paid $2,000 to smuggle the drugs across the border, will serve the full 37 months, since the federal system has abolished parole. Morcom can request a transfer to Canada, although that is unlikely to happen for at least a year, if it happens at all. Canadian and U.S. justice officials said the speed at which Morcom's case proceeded is typical. While Canadian courts bend to the breaking point under a backlog of pending trials, U.S. law requires their system to move at a rapid rate in order to protect the accused's constitutional right to a speedy trial. Assistant U.S. district attorney Janet Freeman said the law insists that criminal trials must take place within 70 days of indictment. "So things really get moving," she said. "When you arrest someone, it starts what we call a 'speedy trial clock.' " The Canadian duo of Anthony Ray Johnson and Jeff Craig Bishop were arrested Jan. 19 after a Zodiac loaded with marijuana was found on the beach west of Port Angeles. Four months later, Johnson was convicted in Tacoma, and Bishop pleaded guilty four days later. Bob Prior, director of the federal prosecution service in B.C., said similar cases in Canada take substantially longer because so many more people plead not guilty and go to trial. "It would almost never happen up here that quickly," said Prior. He said the speedy-trial act plays a key role, but the U.S. system also handles far fewer trials because so many more people plead guilty. "There are very strong incentives in the U.S. to cooperate with the police," Prior said. "If they plead and cooperate, they fall outside the guidelines for sentencing. So the person who might have got a minimum 10 years in jail, by cooperating with the authorities, is no longer facing that minimum." Defence attorneys, argue, however, that such incentives create their own problems. "When you have people with that kind of incentive, their incentive isn't necessarily to tell the truth, but rather to tell something that helps them get what they want," said Seattle criminal defence attorney Stephan Illa, who represented Johnson at trial. "In fact, that's what I've seen repeatedly -- that the people who are given this kind of incentive will go out and collect information that is extraordinarily helpful to the government but may not be true." Illa said Canadians awaiting trial at the federal detention centre in south Seattle have been approached by other Canadians trying to get information or work a deal. "Then, suddenly, those people are identified as informants, who say: 'Well, this guy told me x, y and z about his crime.' And, in fact, it may not be the case at all." The suspects, however, desperately want to avoid the federal sentencing guidelines that call for much more stringent penalties than those handed out in Canada for similar offences. A smuggler caught with more than 100 kilograms of marijuana in the U.S., for instance, faces a minimum sentence of five years. "That's the starting point," Freeman says. "Five years on up to 40 years." A person caught with 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. "Many of the people I deal with, they just can't believe how serious and severe the sentences are," Illa said. By comparison, Prior said the sentences would be much lower in Canada. A person caught with 100 kilos of marijuana in B.C. might face three years in prison, but would likely get parole after serving only a part of that. "The really significant difference isn't so much the likely sentence that you'd get up here," Prior said. "The difference is that in the U.S. it's a certain penalty. You will get 10 years without parole if you have 1,000 kilos of marijuana. No discussion. "Up here, you can enter into a discussion, [there are] all kinds of mitigating factors, and what the role of the person was becomes quite important up here. Whereas down there, they don't really seem to care as much." There is also no parole in the U.S. under federal sentencing guidelines, so that what you get is what you serve. Canadians imprisoned in the U.S. can apply for a transfer to Canada, but there is no guarantee that they will get the transfer, Prior says. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D