Supreme Court Weighs Harsh Crack Sentences

Justices Examine Disparity In Crack Vs. Powder Cocaine Sentencing Guidelines

(CBS/AP)  The Supreme Court wrestled Tuesday with how to give judges discretion to impose shorter prison terms, including for some crack cocaine crimes, without abandoning the long-standing national goal of similar punishments for similar crimes.

In a pair of cases involving drug crimes, trial court judges handed down sentences that were shorter than those called for in the federal sentencing guidelines established by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Justice Stephen Breyer asked whether there was a way for the court to find a path between forcing judges to adhere to the guidelines in all cases "and the opposite, which is to say they don't have to do anything the commission says."

One case involved a crack cocaine dealer who received a 15-year term when the guidelines called for 19 to 22 years in prison.

The law includes what critics have called a 100-to-1 disparity: Trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence, but it takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same sentence.

That difference has made it a racial issue, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. Because most crack dealers are black, African Americans tend to think the law was written to put black men away.

And that's not just the view from the streets, adds Andrews. Federal judges, including Reggie Walton, have asked Congress to change the 100-1 rule, arguing it undermines confidence in the system.

"From the standpoint of fundamental fairness, I think it is imperative that this 100 to one disparity be addressed," said Walton.

When U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson sentenced Derrick Kimbrough to 15 years for selling crack and powder cocaine, he called the higher range "ridiculous." Kimbrough, who is black, is a veteran of the 1991 war with Iraq.

A federal appeals court threw out the lighter sentence, but Kimbrough's lawyer defended it to the justices.

"Judge Jackson got it right in this case," said Michael Nachmanoff, the Federal Public Defender in Alexandria, Va. "He imposed a long sentence of 15 years."

Arguing for the longer sentence - 19 to 22 years - Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben said judges must impose sentences that apply the 100-to-1 ratios. "For a judge to say I think Congress and the guidelines are crazy is a textbook example of an unreasonable sentencing factor," said Dreeben, a deputy solicitor general.

A companion case from Iowa also involves a judge's discretion to impose a more lenient sentence in a drug case, although Brian Gall pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ecstasy. In Gall's case, the judge decided probation was sufficient punishment even though the guidelines called for prison time.

A federal appeals court threw out that sentence as well.

The Bush administration is supporting the appeals court rulings, while civil rights and advocacy groups are backing the defendants.

Congressional opponents of the laws establishing more severe sentencing for crack cocaine than powdered cocaine say they are racially discriminatory because they hit more directly at the black community, where this form of drug abuse is more commonplace.

Advocates for reducing the disparity point to crime statistics that show crack is more of an urban and minority drug while cocaine powder is used more often by the affluent. They say harsher penalties for crack cocaine unfairly punish blacks.

More than four-fifths of crack cocaine offenders in federal courts last year were black, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. By contrast, just over a quarter of those convicted of powder cocaine crimes last year were black, the commission said.

Kimbrough actually had much more powder than crack, but it was the latter that determined the length of his prison term.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said judges are not free to impose sentences shorter than the guidelines "based on a disagreement with the sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine offenses."

The crack-powder disparity grew out of a 1986 law that was passed in response to violent crimes committed to get money to feed crack habits.

The sentencing commission, an independent agency within the U.S. judiciary, voted in May to reduce the recommended sentencing ranges for people convicted of crack possession, a step toward lessening the disparity. The recommendation will become effective Nov. 1 unless Congress acts.

At the same time, the commission urged Congress to repeal the mandatory prison term for simple possession and increase the amount of crack required to trigger obligatory five-year or more prison terms as a way to focus on major drug traffickers.

The Supreme Court gave a boost to judges' discretion when it ruled in 2005 that the sentencing guidelines are advisory, not mandatory. The guidelines were adopted in the 1980s to ensure comparable sentences for similar crimes from courtroom to courtroom.

[MARTHA SANTIAGO]

I THINK DAT THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRACK AND COCAINE POWDER AND I ALSO THINK IT IS UNFAIR TO GIVE AFRICAN AMERICANS ALL DAT TIME FOR DRUGS,WHILE THERE GIVING WHITE AMERICANS WITH THE SAME CHARGES A TICKET HOME,IN ANY CASE I DONT THINK OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS A RIGHT TO JUDGE ANYBODY BY THERE COLOR,THIS IS AMERICA WE'RE SUPPOSE TO BE A FREE COUNTRY NOT A PREJUDICE COUNTRY,WE'RE SUPPOSE TO TREATED EQUALY.

[pwrslm]

pwrslm why is it as day winds down you become mor of a babling fool trying to push your agenda. Yes you become sureal that means not real do you have a problem and need help or are you happy to be where you are?

Posted by crzmeat

Babbling fool? At least I put down an idea.

You? Slobbering isnt so honorable. Comparing the two would expose you as a mental midget.

Is this your best effort to solve these problems?

Fact is, USA has 25% of the worlds prison population. We are a nation of 300 million people in a world with 6.6 billion inhabitants, and you think 25% of the worlds prison population is a comedy event?

Wake up, you gotta be a mental midget to miss the obvious cause of this situation. When we send our kids to jail for selling pot to thier friends we are making criminals out of them. Drugs have been legal in Amsterdam for decades, and they dont have anywhere near the problems with substance abuse that we have. Go figure.

[marcpcbs]

It seems to me that cops and judges are all being bought off by drug dealers.

These days the authorities just don''t want to do their jobs.

[linfinster]

I thought that Crack was more dangerous than Coke, Wouldn''t it stand to reason that trying to stop it''s use by stiff sentencing would be a good thing?!? I do agree with the prision time ratio being out of whack. 500 grams is an insane amount. 5 grams for both!! Better start building some bigger prisons, bring back the chain gang and use the prisoners to help pay for city clean up, build a house for habitat for Humanity, give them a reason to do good and teach druggies to deal with real life. Keep out the controlling gangs and thugs. where does all that confiscated drug money go?

[Krazcarl]

pwrslm why is it as day winds down you become mor of a babling fool trying to push your agenda. Yes you become sureal that means not real do you have a problem and need help or are you happy to be where you are?

[prinzowhales]

The nine black-robed lawyers can go to blazes.

Here is a link to a story of 5.5 tons of cocaine from a crashed plane in Mexico that the mainstream American media doesn''t want to talk about...the sister plane of this DC-9 is a CIA plane...and it is intimately connected to stock fraud, the Mena drug''s and money laundering while Clinton was govenor of Arkansas....

http://www.madcowprod.com/05252006.html

but, Brittany just lost custody of her kids so just ignore what these b*stards are doing...just ignore it, like Americans ignored the work that Gary Webb was murdered for undertaking... unless, of course, you buy the official story of the ''two shots to the head suicide''...he was shut down by the ''free press'' for revealing the connection between LA crack sales and the CIA suppliers.... While you are ignoring that Alfred McCoy''s history of the CIA and the Politics of Heroin...and the retired DEA agent, Cele Castillo, who tells of Mexican commandos working for the Bush drug gangs, killing in Texas and the connection between the death squads in Central America and Iraq headed by Colonel James Steele.

http://www.infowars.com/articles/world/mexican_drug_commandos_killing_to_protect_bush_cartel.htm

Troops Home Now! Down with the Washington Regime!

[pwrslm]

we didnt learn a thing from prohibition

you cant solve addiction through jail sentences

it only make criminals out of the victims of the drugs

alchohol is a drug

so why is every other drug against the law

this is not equal justice in any sense of the word

its pandering the a powerful group, some of whose members are Jack Daniels and Jim Beam....a few members who are responsible for taking the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, without consequence....

the governments failure to stop drugs at the border is the cause of the huge quantities of drugs inside our borders

putting people in jails instead of securing our borders cost society far more than we realize

and it doest make us any more secure

what gives government a right to put our kids in jail for a pound of marijuanna

or a couple grams of coke

they are not protecting us from anything

they are just destroying lives

you take a boy who is caught with a small quantity of drugs and put him in prison

when he comes out he is a fully trained thief and a con artist, and will still be using drugs

the only way to solve societies problem with drugs

is to legalize them all

and let society teach us and our children through trial and error

hidding the problems behind jail walls isnt curing the problem, its only filling society with anti social ex cons

[Krazcarl]

mrsparis you lack of any knowledge on drug issues is showing have you ever known a crackhead have you personaly witnesseed the damage it has done I have on several occasions it''s outright terrible. As I staded before I''m not anti drug would soppoet legalized pot but thats where I draw the line. Had a lady friend that mother traded her off for a few hits. So your braindead or a addict and it shows.Talk to anyone that was able to put the addiction behind them they will tell you horror stories crack is like buying a gun that blows up in your face.

[msrparis]

For the those that have no idea about the effects of crack, please educate yourself before speaking unintelligently about the issue by reading
http://www.crack-myths.org/index.html

AND no one is trying to stop people from being punished, just impose the same fair sentence for the same drug, (crack is cocaine).

[msrparis]

For the those that have no idea about the effects of crack, please educate yourself before speaking unintelligently about the issue by reading
http://www.crack-myths.org/index.html

AND no one is trying to stop people from being punished, just impose the same fair sentence for the same drug, (crack is cocaine).