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OfflinemotamanM
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Controversy continues over cocaine sentences
    #5858417 - 07/14/06 03:37 PM (17 years, 6 months ago)

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/07/14/nebraska/doc44b6e79b76d49720841001.txt

Controversy continues over cocaine sentences

By KEVIN O'HANLON / The Associated Press
Thursday, Jul 13, 2006 - 07:47:51 pm CDT

A federal judge was rebuffed Thursday in his attempt to skirt sentencing guidelines that often result in longer sentences for crack cocaine dealers than for those who sell powder cocaine.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — whose decisions form case law in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota — ruled in the case of Terron Brown, who was convicted of conspiring to distribute 1½ kilograms of crack in the Omaha area.

Guidelines enacted by Congress require judges to use a ratio treating one gram of crack cocaine like 100 grams of powder cocaine when they sentence crack dealers.

The increase in weight can trigger longer prison sentences.

Critics have derided the 100-to-1 ratio as racist, saying it causes many black drug dealers to receive longer prison sentences than white dealers who sell powder cocaine.

The guidelines set Brown’s sentence at 360 months.

In sentencing Brown to 250 months, U.S. District Judge Lyle Strom noted the credibility of witnesses who testified about the quantity of drugs involved in the case.

But he also cited “the distinction between powder and crack cocaine,” which he said “was not scientifically justified and resulted in sentences which were out of proportion to the criminal conduct involved.”

In ordering Brown resentenced within the guidelines, 8th Circuit Judge Steven Colloton of Des Moines noted a decision earlier this year by a federal appeals court in Boston.

In that case, involving a crack dealer named Sambath Pho, the court said judges cannot ignore sentencing guidelines mandating tougher penalties for those convicted of selling crack cocaine.

The Boston decision came one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the guidelines are advisory, not mandatory, for judges crafting sentences.

In Thursday’s ruling, Colloton said: “Whether or not our circuit ultimately agrees with the holding in Pho, the record does not suggest that the district court in this case intended to justify its variance ... solely by reference to a disagreement with the treatment of crack cocaine under the sentencing guidelines.”

The sentencing guidelines were adopted by Congress in the 1980s to make sure that sentences do not vary widely from judge to judge. The system assigns points to offenders based on a complicated formula that considers a crime’s severity, the defendant’s criminal history and other factors to determine the length of sentence.

Judges must document their reasons for deviating from the guidelines.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission recommended Congress adopt a lower sentencing guideline for crack cocaine in 2002, but lawmakers never acted on the proposal.


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