Barry Again Given Six Months as Judge Finds Lack of Remorse

Former Mayor Marion Barry was resentenced Friday to six months in prison for cocaine possession by a judge who accused him of giving an “aura of respectability” to the capital’s violent drug culture.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was identical to the one thrown out two months ago by a federal appeals court.

Jackson said he believed Barry was more sorry that he had been caught than for his actual drug use. “His expressions of remorse have been belated and perfunctory,” the judge said.

Barry could be imprisoned in a minimum-security facility within weeks, said U.S. Atty. Jay Stephens, who added that Barry had “violated the public trust and contributed to the demand for drugs.”

Barry did not address the court and did not speak to reporters afterward.

The former mayor’s attorney, R. Kenneth Mundy, said he probably would appeal the sentence and insisted that Barry was prosecuted for political and racial reasons.

“They were trying to do through the judicial system what they couldn’t do at the election box,” Mundy told reporters. Barry, a three-term mayor, did not seek reelection last year.

Barry was convicted in August, 1990, of a single misdemeanor count of cocaine possession. Trial evidence included an FBI videotape that showed him smoking crack cocaine during a sting operation at a downtown hotel.

Barry’s original sentence was thrown out because Jackson did not specify how he had arrived at the six-month term. The judge explained in detail Friday why he again imposed six months--the longest term allowed for the offense under federal guidelines.

“The defendant is not a first offender. He has simply been caught and convicted for the first time,” the judge said. “He has, by his example, given an aura of respectability to a reprehensible activity that has had tragic consequences for this city.”