Arkansas class Y drug offenses and parole eligibility

Manufacturing crude methamphetamine has become relatively easy, and more and more people are looking for a fast buck in making it. It is a cottage industry in Arkansas. If they get caught manufacturing, the penalties and forfeitures are extremely harsh. In its "war on drugs," the Arkansas legislature has taken some class Y felonies, including manufacture of methamphetamine, and made them subject to 50% parole eligibility. There is also a ten year mandatory minimum up to a maximum of life imprisonment for the most significant class Y felonies. That means that any person convicted of a class Y felony manufacturing case will have to serve at least seven years in prison. Juries in Arkansas have given life in some drug cases, even where the quantities are not all that great. In Arkansas, life is life, there is no parole on a life sentence.

Simultaneous possession of guns and drugs is also a class Y felony, but there is regular 1/4th parole eligibility. 

One cannot get boot camp for any weapons offense or violent crime.

The stakes are high, so the choice of a criminal defense lawyer to handle such as case is important. Many drug cases involve search and seizure issues, and I am a nationally known expert on search and seizure law. I have written a treatise (Search and Seizure 3d with e-supplement) and argued and won Wilson v. Arkansas in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 holding that the knock-and-announce requirement of the Fourth Amendment was a constitutional requirement. (Click here for a free hyperlink to the case and the oral argument.)

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