A crackdown gone awry

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 8, 2007

In the middle of the crack epidemic of the mid 1980s, Congress adopted a highly disparate sentencing scheme for trafficking in crack cocaine vs. powder cocaine. The distinction between the two forms of the same drug never made much sense, and in the intervening years it has often led to punishing low-level crack addicts as harshly as big-league powder cocaine dealers. It is up to Congress to correct this flaw in our criminal justice system.

Current law provides for a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity. To merit the same mandatory minimum sentence, a defendant would have to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine - more than a pound - or 5 grams of crack, about a fifth of an ounce. This unjust distinction should have been erased long ago, but attempts over the years have foundered because self-described tough-on-crime lawmakers were willing to put politics above fundamental fairness.

Most disturbing is the way the sentencing disparity has disproportionately impacted minorities. The latest government statistics found that 80 percent of those sentenced for crack cocaine violations in 2005 were African-American. Crack cocaine tends to be sold on urban streets. It was inevitable that this sentencing scheme would fall most harshly on black city dwellers.

After watching this unequal treatment for years, some judges have started refusing to abide by the federal sentencing guidelines. In about two dozen federal district courts, judges in crack cocaine cases have been more lenient than the guidelines suggest.

On Tuesday, one of those cases was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. But even if the court grants judges the discretion to depart downward from the guidelines in these cases, the ruling would do nothing to erase the 100-to-1 disparity written into mandatory minimum sentences. That is something that only Congress can fix.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission in May once again recommended correcting the crack-powder cocaine disparity. Its report "unanimously and strongly urge(d)" Congress to increase the amount of crack that triggers mandatory minimums. The commission noted that this would allow federal law enforcement to focus its resources on major drug traffickers, leaving low-level offenders to the states. A commendable measure introduced by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act, would implement the commission's recommendations. It is time to put the politics aside and remove this unfair, inequitable policy from our criminal justice system.

[Last modified October 7, 2007, 20:45:14]