CONVICTION OVER DRUGS OVERTURNED

For convicted drug dealer Sidney Vann, the price of freedom might be
$4,467 in cash, a '78 Pontiac Grand Prix and a cellular phone.

Vann was forced to give up those items under a state drug-forfeiture
law more than 13 years ago. A few months later, he was convicted and
sentenced for a drug crime stemming from the same case.

A Douglas County judge has ruled that prosecutors should not have
sought both the forfeiture and the conviction; that violated Vann's
constitutional protection against double jeopardy, based on a recent
Nebraska Supreme Court ruling.

The judge has overturned the conviction and ordered prison officials
to release Vann, although he probably will remain in custody pending
an appeal.

The case appears to be among the first times a judge has overturned a
conviction because of last year's Supreme Court decision involving
Juan Franco Jr.

The Franco decision has led more than 20 convicted drug dealers in
Douglas County alone to bring their cases back to court for review.

"We've been worried about Franco all along, " Assistant Attorney
General J. Kirk Brown said. "This has the potential to put a lot of
drug dealers on the street. That risk has existed since the Franco
decision came down last year."

In the Franco case, the court ruled that his protection against double
jeopardy was violated when Lancaster County prosecutors sought both a
state forfeiture hearing and a drug trial in a case involving one
police stop. In effect, the court said, Franco faced two punishments
for one crime.

The Franco ruling left prosecutors in a difficult position. They've
had to fight to keep old cases from being overturned, and they've had
to search for new ways to convict drug dealers and still take away
their drug money.

In many cases, however, authorities still can seize money and property
under federal forfeiture laws.

Vann's attorney, Thomas Ryder, said his client filed a writ of habeas
corpus a year ago, alleging that he was being imprisoned illegally.
In a type-written document, Vann described being arrested in July 1986
at a hotel near the airport in Omaha.

Vann said authorities took his money and property during a forfeiture
hearing. Four months later, he was found guilty of possessing 13
grams of cocaine and sentenced as a habitual criminal to serve 15 to
25 years. His attorney said that Vann has been punished twice for the
same crime.

Brown, who handled the habeas corpus action involving Vann, said he
probably will appeal the ruling. He argued in court that Vann did not
use the proper mechanism to get his case back before a judge for
review. Brown said some defendants may correctly get their convictions
overturned using different procedures, such as an appeal for
post-conviction relief. So far, a number of Douglas County defendants
who have tried that route have failed for one legal reason or another.

One succeeded in recent months, however, The ruling in that case is
on appeal.

"If a defendant can appropriately fit himself into that Franco
scenario and find the appropriate mechanism to get it before the
court, certainly some of these individuals will be successful," Brown
said.