DEBRA J. SAUNDERS -- Cruel and Unusual

IN 1994, a pregnant and desperate Kemba Smith finally had mustered the spine to leave her drug dealer boyfriend, who was hiding in Seattle from the feds, and return to her parents' Virginia home. She had no prior convictions, no record of violence. She turned herself over to the feds for questioning. Her father expected them to release her on bond.

Instead, Smith fell victim to a justice system riddled with draconian drug sentences, prosecutorial overkill and judicial malpractice. A court investigation concluded that, although she had "aided and abetted" her boyfriend's drug operation, she was not a cocaine dealer. Nonetheless, in 1995 a federal judge sentenced her to 24 1/2 years in federal prison. No parole.

In 1996, Emerge magazine ran a story about Peter Hall's seduction of Kemba Smith, then a student at Hampton University. She was 23 and was impressed with Hall's fancy apartment. By the end, they were homeless, she had suffered a miscarriage after a beating and was pregnant again. Hall had killed his friend Derrick Taylor because he believed Taylor had talked to law enforcement and had taken Kemba to the west coast in search of another rumored informant. To say that Smith made mistakes would be a big-time understatement.

Her mistakes didn't end when she left Hall. She lied to authorities about Hall's whereabouts. According to Emerge, Smith had called her attorney and was about to disclose where Hall was when his dead body was found.

Parents Gus and Odessa Smith care for Kemba's now 3-year old son. Gus said last week, when Kemba turned herself in, "They told us in court they wouldn't let her go because they thought that Peter Hall would threaten her or maybe even kill her. They said that the safest place for her is in jail. But when Peter got killed, they still wouldn't give her a bond."

Gus said Kemba pleaded guilty to three charges, expecting a sen tence of time served, with maybe an extra year, maybe not.

It was a mistake. One of the charges was conspiracy in connection with Hall's 255-kilogram crack trade -- even though much of those drugs were sold before Smith began seeing Hall. The other two charges were money laundering (using drug money to bail Hall from jail) and lying to authorities.

According to Smith's present lawyer, Catherine Powell of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Smith still expected a drastic sentence reduction up to the day she heard the 24-year bell toll. Powell charged prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutor, assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Groene, said he could not comment.

Powell also believes the judge could have mitigated Smith's punishment -- despite mandatory sentencing -- because Smith was under duress. Considering what happened to the late Derrick Taylor, and considering that Smith wasn't a dealer, she's right. But Judge Richard Kellam said 24 1/2, saying "the only purpose of it is a deterrent to others."

Powell also has filed an appeal on constitutional grounds. She believes the sentence violates constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment." So does Families Against Mandatory Minimums (its Web site is at www.FAMM.org) -- an organization that opposes federal mandatory sentencing.

Gus Smith believes that his daughter wouldn't be in jail if she were white. He cited the infamous nanny case: Louise Woodward, convicted of manslaughter, is free. Smith's daughter, guilty of willful stupidity, could be behind bars until Woodward is in her 40s.

Or maybe this was just an unlucky convergence: a young black woman just happened to be steamrolled by ridiculously tough sentencing rules, the wrong prosecutor and a judge who decided she might as well be an example.

If so, beware: It's an example that can be repeated for other non- violent kids who go wrong.