Two Years in the Joint for a Joint

Jacob Sullum | April 17, 2006

Over at AlterNet, Anthony Papa notes that 18-year-old Mitchell Lawrence received a two-year prison sentence last month for selling an undercover cop in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, $20 worth of pot. The parking lot where the cop approached Lawrence was within 1,000 feet of a preschool located in a church basement, which triggered a mandatory minimum sentence. District Attorney David F. Capeless' use of the state's drug-free zones law to prosecute Lawrence and other local teenagers has provoked popular outrage and inspired a primary challenge by defense attorney (and former prosecutor) Judith Knight.