Thirty Federal Judges can’t be wrong. Or can they? When lawmakers finally looked at the disparity between sentencing for crack cocaine and powder cocaine, they found a law that was racist and unfair. Politicians have long been goaded by organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums to change the law that put so many people, particularly African-Americans, behind bars for possession of a small amount of crack cocaine. (See Reentry Central News article Cracked Justice: New Report Details Why States Need to Reform Their Crack Cocaine Laws 3/28/11)
Now some federal judges are asking Congress to make the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive. As the law stands now, those who committed a crime involving crack cocaine before August 2011 will not see a reduction of their sentence, something that many jurist do not agree with.
According to a recent New York Times article, 30 federal trial judges question why they must continue to sentence a defendant under a law found to be “unjust and racist” up until the magical August date when the exact same crime will carry a lesser sentence. The NYT reports how Judge Stewart Dazell, bound by the old law, was forced to sentence Kenneth Jackson to ten years in prison for possession 100 grams of crack, although Dazell was clearly unhappy in doing so. Judges, such as D. Brock Hornby of the Federal District of Maine, who sentence defendants under the new guidelines have found the Justice Department appealing those sentences.
Lead Sponsors of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, Senators Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), asked Attorney General Eric Holder to allow those who committed their crack cocaine offense before the new law was passed, but were sentenced afterward, to have the new guidelines used at sentencing, but Holder has failed to honor the Senators’ recommendation.
One unnamed judge in the NYT article stated the new law should be rechristened “The Not Quite as Fair as it could be Sentencing Act of 2010.”
A reasonable person might ask Attorney General Holder, why the U.S. continues to keep hundreds, if not thousands, of American citizens incarcerated under a flawed, racist and unjust law, at a cost of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. At this point, no reasonable answer can be given. Maybe now that federal judges are demanding a response, the answer will be forthcoming. Those still being held in prison for committing a crime involving crack cocaine would like the response to be favorable.
Source: New York Times 3/19/11
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