Mandatory Minimum Laws Preserve Crack Sentencing Disparity

Sentencing

Mandatory Minimum Laws Preserve Crack Sentencing Disparity

Posted Dec 17, 2007, 09:12 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Sentences for crack cocaine remain much harsher than those for the powder form of the drug, despite action last week that helped crack defendants.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has reduced crack sentences in federal sentencing guidelines, but mandatory minimum sentences enacted by Congress in 1986 still require much heavier penalties for crack, Adam Liptak writes in his Sidebar column for the New York Times.

A defendant convicted of crimes involving 5 grams of crack—about the amount in a sugar packet—will get a five-year sentence, Liptak writes. But those convicted of powder cocaine possession won’t get a five-year minimum until the crime involves 500 grams—or more than a pound—of the drug.

Actions last week by the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the U.S. Supreme Court may perversely take away the impetus to change the federal minimum sentencing law, the story says.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court gave federal judges more leeway to depart from the guidelines because of the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences. The next day, the Sentencing Commission voted to make retroactive its decision to reduce the disparities.

Legislators may want to keep the mandatory minimums to keep judges from going too easy on crack defendants after the Supreme Court decision, says University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, a former federal judge.

“It’s going to be more difficult to make the case for repeal of mandatory minimums across the board when judges are viewed as having too much discretion,” Cassell told the newspaper.

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