By:  LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ

Should criminal defendants convicted of selling crack-cocaine have a harsher prison term than those convicted of selling powder cocaine? Right now, that is what the law says. Though, there have been calls for reform …. what I call felony fairness.

The 1986 and 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Acts established mandatory penalties for federal convictions for crack cocaine and created drastically different penalty structures for crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine. At the time, Congress and others felt crack cocaine was more dangerous than powdered cocaine and that it led to more violent crimes. As such, the sentencing laws required the same prison terms for people convicted of selling 5 grams of crack cocaine as those found guilty of selling 500 grams of powered cocaine. These sentencing laws are referred to as 100-to-1 disparity. So, for example, if a person was convicted of the felony posession five grams of crack, he or she was sentenced to a minimum prison term of five years, but it would take 500 grams of powdered cocaine to get the same sentence.

There have been many calls to reform the sentencing rules for these drug offenses. The laws disproportionately affect minorities convicted of felonies – reports indicate the majority of crack offenders are African American, while the majority of powder cocaine defendants are white or Hispanic.

Last year, the Sentencing Commission issued guidelines that would give judges the power to order a small reduction in the sentences of people imprisoned for selling crack cocaine. But Congress has done little to address the issue. Judge Walton, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and former White House Associate Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs about the fairness of these sentences and sanctions for these offenses. Judge Walton told the subcommittee, “As a representative of the Judicial Conference and as a sentencing judge who is regularly called upon to impose sentences on crack defendants, I encourage Congress to pass legislation that would reduce the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences.” Judge Walton also discusses early release of prisoners when a sentence is reduced. See a clip of Judge Walton’s testimony from the US Courts website here: http://www.uscourts.gov/Press_Releases/Judge%20Walton%20Testimony.wmv.