Pubdate: Fri, 20 Sep 2013
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2013 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492

HOLDER EXPANDS CHANGES ON DRUG-CASE PRISON TERMS

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. says he is expanding a major 
change in federal drug policy to cover pending drug cases. Last 
month, Mr. Holder announced that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders 
would no longer be charged with felonies that carry lengthy mandatory 
sentences.

Those mandatory minimum prison sentences, a legacy of the 
government's war on drugs, limit the discretion of judges to impose 
shorter prison terms.

Under the latest change, the new policy will be broadened to apply to 
defendants who have not yet been convicted. The policy also may be 
applied, at the discretion of prosecutors, to cases in which a 
sentence has not yet been imposed.

Mr. Holder says the government should reserve the most severe terms 
for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers.
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