Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 Source: Canon City Daily Record (US CO) Copyright: 2008 Royal Gorge Publishing Corporation. Contact: http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3387 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) COURT RULES ON DISPARATE DRUG SENTENCES In a little noted decision last month, the U.S. Supreme Court gave judges more discretion in sentencing crack cocaine defendants. In effect, it was a repudiation of the get-tough sentencing guidelines imposed in the 1980s during the so-called war on drugs, an effort that mostly failed. The 7-2 ruling will affect the sentences of some 19,000 federal prisoners, the majority of whom are African American. The unfairness of the law was a key in the court's decision. The sentencing guidelines required a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine, or 100 times as much as the powdered form of the drug. The high court ruling came in a case challenging an appellate court decision overruling a trial judge's sentence that was below the federal guideline. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reversed the appellate court, noting "the District Court properly homed in on the particular circumstances of the case and accorded weight to the (U.S.) Sentencing Commission's consistent and emphatic position that the crack/powder disparity is at odds with." The federal Sentencing Commission has significantly reduced the ratios to be used in future cases and voted unanimously to apply them retroactively. Immediate fears in the law enforcement community that thousands of inmates suddenly would be dumped into society are unwarranted. The Sentencing Commission says only a fraction of inmates will be released anytime soon and most releases will span a period of years, not months. The ruling returns the power to judges to determine the severity of sentencing depending on the circumstances of the case, and not the hysteria surrounding a particular drug. Regarding cocaine, we have always known where it comes from and how it is used, but have been unable to stem its inward flow. Meanwhile, mom and pop meth labs are pumping out a new generation's drug to destroy minds and bodies. Apparently the act of locking up great numbers of people and throwing away the keys was not the way to victory in the drug war. Unwittingly, perhaps, the high court may be challenging us to find a better way. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake