Former Vermont Chief Justice: Douglas wrong on pot cases

Franklin Billings, Jr., former Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, has taken Gov. Jim Douglas to task over the Governor's order to law enforcement to skip the Windsor County State's Attorney in marijuana and other drug cases. Chief Justice Billings says that the Governor is both interfering with the prosecutorial discretion the voters in Windsor County have given to Robert Sand, who, as State's Attorney, is an elected official. Douglas argues, weakly, that Sand is abusing his discretion and says that he's received many letters supporting him, particularly from law enforcement around the state.

Personally, I don't know where Gov. Douglas is getting his support from. Letters to the editor in the newspapers around the state are with Sand, and I think that Chief Justice Billings hit it right on the head. Douglas is trying to circumvent our prosecutorial system (and the voters in Windsor County) for his political gain. I have many friends who have met the Governor and they all say he's a nice guy, but he's wrong on this one. Sand is doing the right thing. We need action on the issue of drug policy, and Sand is using his office in a progressive and proactive way to do what he thinks is right. Kudos to Sand, it takes guts to do what he's doing.

We'll see how this thing plays out. Really, there ought not be a big confrontation on this because I don't see either Sand or Douglas backing down. I do think that Douglas, in an attempt to look tough on drugs, took the wrong approach here. Vermonters want drugs out of the state, but they also want a smart and effective drug strategy, not just the same old "lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key" approach that is costing us many millions of dollars per year. It's time for a change.

Vermont county prosecutor takes stand on drug laws

Robert Sand, a state's attorney (akin to a district attorney or prosecutor elsewhere) in Windsor County, Vermont is standing by his decision to send a sixty-one year old attorney found in possession of two and a half pounds of weed to court diversion. The governor, Jim Douglas, is pissed. Douglas has ordered the state police to bypass Sand's office and go to the Vermont Attorney General with significant drug cases arising in Sand's county.

Although I've worked on the defense side of criminal law in the past, I have to say I really agree with what Sand has done here. In Vermont, corrections is the largest department in state government with over 700 state employees. Vermont conservatives (yes, we have those here) bemoan our "generous welfare state." But, then conservatives like Douglas go and try to make examples out of someone like Attorney Sand, sending the message that they want to feed the corrections beast. It defies logic, but that's politics.

As anyone familiar with Vermont can attest, we have a drug problem up here. A lot of those folks whose use and sell end up in jail several times during the course of their lives. Although we can only speculate about the particulars of this case in particular, what Sand decided to do is very common sensical and very practical: he's sending this person to get help and try to figure herself out. He's not sending a sixty-one year-old woman to jail. He's not making her pay huge fines. He's not giving her up to the Feds. He's trying to fix her problem with one of the best tools he has available.

Kind of reminds you of a prosecutors real job: seeking justice.

But, sadly, it doesn't seem like that is what Gov. Douglas has in mind. Why seek justice when you can look good as a "law and order" governor?