Alabama Man Is First Sentenced to Death Under Federal Drug Law

The mastermind of what prosecutors portrayed as a murderous marijuana ring was sentenced to death Tuesday, making him the first person to receive the death sentence under a 3-year-old federal law.

David Ronald Chandler, 37, of Piedmont, Ala., was convicted on all nine counts in an indictment charging that he directed a major drug ring that operated in Alabama and Georgia and killed a police informer.

“I’m not guilty,” Chandler told U.S. Dist. Judge James H. Hancock before he ordered the death penalty. Jurors on April 3 had recommended capital punishment.

U.S. Atty. Frank Donaldson said evidence supported the conviction and the penalties.

Hancock did not address the question of how Chandler would be put to death. The 1988 law under which Chandler was convicted, which is aimed at drug-related violence, does not provide a means of capital punishment.

Hancock said he will rule later on motions for a new trial and a new sentencing phase. Defense attorney Drew Redden said he will appeal the conviction and sentence, and Hancock said implementation of the sentence would be stayed pending the appeals.

The jury convicted Chandler of running a marijuana distribution ring and protecting it by soliciting the killing of police informant Marlin Earl Shuler, who was shot to death last year.

Along with the death sentence, Hancock imposed maximum sentences on Chandler for related convictions: two life terms for marijuana dealing convictions, four concurrent six-year terms on money-laundering convictions, and two consecutive five-year terms for firearms violations.