Widening Cracks in the Crack Cocaine Guidelines
Effective March 3, 2008, the crack v. powder sentencing disparity was reduced from the previously ridiculous 100 to 1 and it is predicted that as many as 20,000 federal inmates will ultimately be affected.
Senator Biden (D-Delaware), Chairman of the Senate Judiciaty Committee, has introduced The Drug Sentencing Reform and Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007, which would impose a 1 to 1 ratio for crack/powder cocaine. The Committee held hearings last month and even Senator Sessions of Alabama came out in favor of the 20 to 1 ratio. These promising developments herald the end of one of the sentencing guidelines greatest injustices which have wrought harm to our system of justice for decades.
Professor Berman here has done great good work in attacking this injustice. A copy of the Sentencing Commission's Order form for district court's to use is available here.
