Civil and Human Rights Coalition Urges Attorney General to Issue Prosecution Guidance on New Crack Cocaine Law
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is urging Attorney General Eric Holder to “work with some urgency” toward issuing new sentencing guidelines to federal prosecutors in light of the passage last August of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the discriminatory sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses.
Before the FSA, a person charged with possession of just five grams of crack cocaine – the weight of two sugar packets – received the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as someone caught with 500 grams – about a pound – of powder cocaine. The FSA reduced the sentencing disparity from a ratio of 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 and eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for simple possession of crack cocaine. The bill unanimously passed both chambers of Congress and was signed into law by President Obama on August 3.
Despite the new law, however, federal prosecutors are apparently still seeking sentences for those arrested before August 3 under the old law, even if they have not yet been charged. In a January 18 letter addressed to Holder, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights noted that several judges have sentenced defendants under the new FSA guidelines, rather than the old ones, precisely because Congress found the previous ones grossly unfair. The letter urged Holder to issue guidance instructing all federal prosecutors to apply the FSA to all offenders not yet sentenced, “including those whose conduct predates the legislation’s enactment.”
“The recent passage of the FSA emphatically reaffirms Congress’ intention that crack defendants are entitled to fair treatment,” the letter said. “It makes no sense to apply punishment differentially for defendants whose conduct occurred a few days apart.”
The full letter can be read below: