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DOJ urges end to cocaine sentencing disparity

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Officials from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that Congress should eliminate the sentencing disparities between crimes committed involving crack and powder cocaine. The statements came during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer testified that the disparity in sentencing guidelines has only increased the strain on the US prison system and has undermined the trust in the justice system, particularly among minorities where sentences for crack cocaine more common. Breuer and others also testified that the differences in sentences, which were instituted in 1986, were based on an incorrect belief that crack cocaine users were more violent and more damaging to society than powder cocaine users. The sentencing issue was previously addressed by the US Sentencing Commission (USSC) in 2007 when it voted unanimously to give retroactive effect to an earlier amendment to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that reduced penalties for crack cocaine offenders. The amendment, which took effect on November 1, 2007, was intended to narrow the disparity between sentences for powder and crack cocaine offenses. According to a study released by the USSC in April 2008, more than 3,000 prison inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses had their sentences reduced under the amendment.VOTE FOR JURIST JURIST is nominated for a 2009 Webby Award as best Law website. Please vote for us here!

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).