Supreme Court says Judges can reduce crack sentences
December 11, 2007
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As you know, there are disparities in sentencing when it comes to crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The Supreme Court has moved in a positive direction to reduce this disparity.
From the Associated Press:
By a 7-2 vote, the court said that a 15-year sentence given to Derrick Kimbrough, a black veteran of the 1991 war with Iraq, was acceptable, even though federal sentencing guidelines called for Kimbrough to receive 19 to 22 years.
In a separate sentencing case that did not involve crack cocaine, the court also ruled in favor of judicial discretion to impose more lenient sentences than federal guidelines recommend.
The challenges to criminal sentences center on a judge’s discretion to impose a shorter sentence than is called for in guidelines established by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, at Congress’ direction. The guidelines were adopted in the mid-1980s to help produce uniform punishments for similar crimes.
The idea of reducing the disparity is based on the fact that you are being punished more severely for using a different type of cocaine. Crack cocaine is used by poorer people and add that to the racial disparities regarding the justice system and African Americans, you get laws that target these two groups.
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