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Senators Leahy and Durbin write letter to Attorney General Holder urging application of FSA to pending cases

By Douglas A. Berman

I am very pleased to have learned this morning of a potent two-page letter, dated November 17, 2010, signed by Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Dick Durbin to Attorney General Eric Holder, which urges the Justice Department to "apply [the Fair Sentencing Act's] modified mandatory minimums to all defendants who have not yet been sentenced, including those whose conduct predates the legislation's enactment."  Here is most of the text from the letter (which can be downloaded below): The preamble of the Fair Sentencing Act states that its purpose is to "restore fairness to Federal cocaine sentencing." While the Fair Sentencing Act did not completely eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, as the Justice Department had advocated, it did significantly reduce the disparity...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on November 18, 2010 (boomark / email).