Pubdate: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL) Copyright: 2007 The Palm Beach Post Contact: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Note: Does not publish letters from writers outside area A SENTENCE OF FAIRNESS Judges should be able to judge, and equivalent crimes should result in equivalent penalties. For two decades, confusion about crack cocaine has made those seemingly obvious propositions controversial. Finally, some judicial balance is being restored. Reacting to the rise of crack cocaine, Congress in 1986 dictated that crack be treated as 100 times worse than the chemically identical powder form of the drug. A person possessing 50 grams of crack would face at least 10 years in prison. It would take 5,000 grams of powder cocaine to get the same sentence. Reinforcing that approach, appeals courts routinely overturned sentencing by trial court judges who gave crack defendants less than the minimum term recommended under guidelines set by the United States Sentencing Commission. That commission and the U.S. Supreme Court at last are changing a system that gave unfairly long sentences to African-American offenders, who are more likely to use crack, while going easy on white offenders, who are more likely to use powder. The sentencing commission first reduced the recommended sentences for crack offenders. Then this week, the commission applied the guidelines retroactively. Congress could have blocked the changes but didn't. Also this week, the Supreme Court ruled that appeals courts no longer can assume that below-guidelines sentences by trial judges are unreasonable. The sentencing commission acted unanimously. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voting - - incredibly - to continue the unfair policy. Balance isn't fully restored. Though average crack sentences will be reduced, they still will be longer than sentences for powdered cocaine. Congress, which has the power to make the sentences equivalent, still has to finish the job. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath