Unfairness in Federal Cocaine Sentencing: Is it Time to Crack the 100 to 1 Disparity?
At a hearing on May 21, Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer repeated the DOJ’s call – first made on April 29 to the Senate Crime and Drugs – for Congress to completely eliminate the cocaine sentencing disparity. In testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Breuer called the sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine difficult to justify from an evidentiary standpoint. He also noted that the Department of Justice has formed a working group to examine federal sentencing and corrections policy, including crack cocaine sentencing policy. The group has not yet issued findings and recommendations.
The Subcommittee, Chaired by Robert Scott (D-Va.), heard both from members of the House of Representatives and from experts and practitioners in the field. Representatives Scott, Maxine Waters (D-Ca.), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) have all introduced bills that would eliminate the disparity. For more information on the bills, please follow this link: http://www.famm.org/Programs/USCongress/BillsinCongress.aspx
The second panel included Lanny Breuer; Judge Ricardo Hinojosa, Acting Chair of the Sentencing Commission; Scott Patterson, President of the National District Attorneys Association; and Willie Mays Aikens, a former Major League Baseball player who served fourteen years as a result of a crack cocaine offense. If Aikens had been convicted for powder cocaine, the drug to which he was addicted, he would have received probation, or two years in prison at most.
To watch the hearing or read witness testimony, follow this link: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_090521.html
To read FAMM’s written testimony, click here to download the pdf file.