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Will the Supreme Court Render the Fair Sentencing Act Less Fair?
Will the Supreme Court Render the Fair Sentencing Act Less Fair?
(Also posted on ACSBlog.)
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA) is actually only kind of fair. The passage of the 2010 law, which reduced the crack to powder mandatory minimum ratio in federal cocaine sentences from 100:1 to 18:1, was a significant step in the direction of fairness. While we applaud this change, we also look forward to the day when Congress adopts the actually fair ratio of 1:1. In the meantime, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari on two FSA cases, Hill v. United States and Dorsey v. United States, both out of the Seventh Circuit. In these cases, the Court will decide whether people whose offense predates the enactment of the FSA but who were sentenced afterwards should be sentenced based on the old 100:1 ratio or the new 18:1 ratio. If the Court rules the wrong way, a sizeable class of people will be excluded from Congress’ attempt to restore fairness and racial neutrality to federal cocaine sentencing, and the kind-of-Fair Sentencing Act will become even less fair.
Congress created the 100:1 sentencing disparity in 1986. It left little legislative history behind, and it acted based on unsupported beliefs that crack is more addictive than powder cocaine, that it caused crime, that it caused psychosis and death, that young people were particularly prone to becoming addicted to it, and that crack’s low cost and ease of manufacture would lead to even more widespread use of it. Congress knows now that none of this is true. Indeed, as early as 1996, a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the physiological and psychoactive effects of cocaine are similar regardless of whether it is in the form of powder or crack.
The scientifically unjustifiable 100:1 ratio meant that people faced a minimum of five years imprisonment for offenses involving five grams of crack cocaine. Five grams is the weight of two pennies. That’s worth repeating: five grams is the weight of two pennies and resulted in a minimum of five years in federal prison. Most disturbingly, because the majority of people arrested for crack offense are black, the 100:1 ratio resulted in vast racial disparities in the average lengths of sentences for comparable offenses, and even meant that African Americans were serving a comparable amount of time in prison for non-violent drug offenses (as of 2006, an average of 58.7 months) as whites were for violent offenses (an average of 61.7 months). By the time Congress and the president took action to remedy this injustice by reducing the ratio to 18:1, the old ratio had become the most notorious policy representing the unfair treatment of African Americans in our criminal justice system.
Against this backdrop and in light of the FSA’s legislative history, it is clear that Congress intended the new ratio to go into effect immediately upon receiving the president’s signature. On this point, Attorney General Eric Holder agrees with us. This term, we’ll find out if the Supreme Court agrees as well when it rules on Hill and Dorsey.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/will-supreme-court-render-fair-sentencing-act-less-fair
(Also posted on ACSBlog.)
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA) is actually only kind of fair. The passage of the 2010 law, which reduced the crack to powder mandatory minimum ratio in federal cocaine sentences from 100:1 to 18:1, was a significant step in the direction of fairness. While we applaud this change, we also look forward to the day when Congress adopts the actually fair ratio of 1:1. In the meantime, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari on two FSA cases, Hill v. United States and Dorsey v. United States, both out of the Seventh Circuit. In these cases, the Court will decide whether people whose offense predates the enactment of the FSA but who were sentenced afterwards should be sentenced based on the old 100:1 ratio or the new 18:1 ratio. If the Court rules the wrong way, a sizeable class of people will be excluded from Congress’ attempt to restore fairness and racial neutrality to federal cocaine sentencing, and the kind-of-Fair Sentencing Act will become even less fair.
Congress created the 100:1 sentencing disparity in 1986. It left little legislative history behind, and it acted based on unsupported beliefs that crack is more addictive than powder cocaine, that it caused crime, that it caused psychosis and death, that young people were particularly prone to becoming addicted to it, and that crack’s low cost and ease of manufacture would lead to even more widespread use of it. Congress knows now that none of this is true. Indeed, as early as 1996, a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the physiological and psychoactive effects of cocaine are similar regardless of whether it is in the form of powder or crack.
The scientifically unjustifiable 100:1 ratio meant that people faced a minimum of five years imprisonment for offenses involving five grams of crack cocaine. Five grams is the weight of two pennies. That’s worth repeating: five grams is the weight of two pennies and resulted in a minimum of five years in federal prison. Most disturbingly, because the majority of people arrested for crack offense are black, the 100:1 ratio resulted in vast racial disparities in the average lengths of sentences for comparable offenses, and even meant that African Americans were serving a comparable amount of time in prison for non-violent drug offenses (as of 2006, an average of 58.7 months) as whites were for violent offenses (an average of 61.7 months). By the time Congress and the president took action to remedy this injustice by reducing the ratio to 18:1, the old ratio had become the most notorious policy representing the unfair treatment of African Americans in our criminal justice system.
Against this backdrop and in light of the FSA’s legislative history, it is clear that Congress intended the new ratio to go into effect immediately upon receiving the president’s signature. On this point, Attorney General Eric Holder agrees with us. This term, we’ll find out if the Supreme Court agrees as well when it rules on Hill and Dorsey.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/will-supreme-court-render-fair-sentencing-act-less-fair
Justice Is Served
June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world's largest incarcerator. Throughout the month, check back daily for posts about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/justice-served
June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world's largest incarcerator. Throughout the month, check back daily for posts about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/justice-served
Chance at Freedom: Retroactive Crack Sentence Reductions For Up to 12,000 May Begin Today
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/chance-freedom-retroactive-crack-sentence-reductions-12000-may-begin-today
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
