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P neither her car nor her 6..se was seized by the government. priced attorneys. Allen St. Pierre, the deputy director of the The only way a defendant can be sure of avoiding a National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. hug mandatory-minimum sentence under federal law is to plead spoken to literally thousands of people who have been ar- guilty and give "substantial assistance" in the prosecution of rested for pot-related offenses. He receives about a hundred someone else. The willingness to turn informer has become phone calls each week from people who are losing theirjohn- more important to a drug offender's fate than his or her role losing their houses, feeling desperate for advice. They tend tr in a crime. The U. S. attorney, not the judge, decides whether be working people: house painters, clerks, carpenters, and me- I the defendant's cooperation is sufficient to warrant a reduc- chanics. Their cases tend to be handled, or mishandled, b~ lion of the sentence. Although this system helps to avoid ex- family attorneys with little knowledge of the marijuana laws. pensive trials and provides evidence for future indictments, America's prisons aze full of poor and working-class marijuu- ' it also leads to longer prison terms for the minor participants na offenders. in a dmg case. Kingpins have a great deal of information [o Children of the upper middle class are rarely sent to prison provide, whereas drug couriers often have none. for marijuana offenses today. Their parents usually enroll A little-known provision of the forfeiture laws rewards con- them in private drug-treatment programs before trial and hire fidential informers with up to 25 percent of the assets seized as attorneys who specialize in drug cases. Privileged young men a result of [heir testimony. During the I980s the United States and women are usually vested more leniently in court. The developed a wealthy and industrious class of professional in- daughter of Judge Rudolph Slate, the man who sentenced formers. In 1985 the federal govemment spent $25 million Douglas Lamar Gray to life for buying a pound of marijuana. ~ on informers. Last year it spent more than $100 million. was later arrested for selling the dmg. She was granted youth- Informimg on others has become not just a way to avoid ful-offender status. The records in her case have been sealed: punishment but a way of life. In major drug cases an in- most likely she received probation. The son of Indiana Con- former can earn a million dollars or more. A recent investi- gressman Dan Burton, an outspoken proponent of life sen- gation by the National Law Journal found that the propor- fences for some marijuana-related crimes, was arrested for lion of federal search warrants relying exclusively on transporting nearly eight pounds of pot from Louisiana to In- i unidentified informers nearly tripled from 1980 to 1993, in- diana in the trunk of his car. Six months later Danny L. Burton t creasing from 24 percent to 71 percent. The growing reliance II was arested again, this time a[ his Indianapolis apartment. ~ on informers has given an unprecedented degree of influence where police found thirty marijuana plants and a shotgun with to criminals who have a direct financial interest in gaining six shells. Federal prosecutors declined to press charges convictions. Informers have been caught framing innocent against Burton's son; Indiana prosecutors gained dismissal of people. Law-enforcement agents have been caught using the charges against him: and a Louisianajudge sentenced him nonexistent informers to justify search warrants. to community service, probation, and house arest. As chair- "Criminals are likely to say and do almost anything [o get man of the House Govemment Reform and Oversight Com- what they want," Stephen S. Trot[, a federaljudge who was mi«ee, Burton is now leading the investigation of ethical the chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division dur- lapses in the Clinton Administration. He will not comment ICI ing the Reagan years, says in the National Law Journal. on his son's case. "This willingness to do anything includes not only truthful- The harshest punishments are given to people who won't ly spilling the beans on friends and relatives but also lying, cooperate with the government. The pressure to inform on committing perjury, manufacturing evidence, soliciting oth- others is immense-as is the cos[ of resisting it. [n 1993 ers to coroborate their lies with more lies, and double-cross- Jodie Israel was arrested for marijuana possession and balk- ing anyone with whom they come into contact, including- ed at testifying against her husband, a Rastafarian marijuana and especially-the prosecutor." trafficker. Federal prosecutors in Montana threatened her The legal and monetary rewards for informing on others with a long prison sentence. Although Israel possessed only have even spawned a whole new business: the buying and eight ounces of marijuana at the time of her arrest. under the selling of drug leads. Defendants who hope to avoid a broad federal conspiracy laws she could be held liable for lengthy mandatory-minimum sentence but who have no many of her husband's crimes. Israel was thirty-one years valuable information to give prosecutors can now secretly old, the mother of four young children. She had never before buy information from vendors on the black market. Accord- been charged with any crime. Judge Jack Shanstrom waned ing to Tom Dawson, a prominent Kansas defense attomey, her in court that without a promise of cooperation "you are some professional informers now offer their services to de- not going to see your children for ten plus years." Neverthe- fendants in drug cases for fees of up to $250,000. less, Israel refused to testify against her husband. She was Most of the people being imprisoned for marijuana offens- sentenced to eleven years in federal prison without parole. es are ordinary Americans without important information to Her husband was sentenced to twenty-nine years without pa- provide, large assets to trade, or the income to pay for high- role. Her children were scattered among various relatives. yfi u~un i~nr