Panel: Lighten crack cocaine sentences

[ck4829]

A first-time crack-cocaine conviction should mean a lower federal minimum sentence than under current guidelines, according to a judicial agency that has raised concerns about a disparity in punishment for people caught with crack or powder cocaine.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to lower the recommended sentencing range for those caught with 5 grams or more of crack cocaine from 63 months to 78 months to a range of 51 months to 63 months. Those with at least 50 grams should serve 97 months to 121 months in prison, not 121 months to 151 months, as the guidelines now say, the commission said late Friday.

At issue is a 1986 law that includes what critics have called the 100-to-1 disparity: Trafficking in 5 grams of cocaine carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence, but it takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same sentence.

This is the fourth time the commission, an independent agency in the judicial branch, has recommended that Congress narrow the sentencing gap. Previous recommendations, which were not adopted, have included raising the penalties for powder cocaine and lowering them for crack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_re_us/crack_cocaine_sentences

[pitohui]

1. may i humbly ask the panel to invite the released crackheads to live in their neighborhood?

because they are destroying new orleans and any chance we have of rebuilding this city

[wellst0nev0ter]

3. I Always Smile At Those Who Think We Can Imprison Our Problem Away

since there is more crack addicts than cell space in any given day.

[rasputin1952]

2. I must say I sympathize w/the user...but for those that sell

crack, meth or other things that poison people need to spend a lifetime behind bars. They instill misery upon others for monetary gain, and they get no sympathy from me.

[jwirr]

4. Be damn careful what you say and to whom. My grandson was in

a speech class and made a speech about legalizing marijuana. The next day he got stopped by the police who put him in jail overnight because he had a bottle of pain meds on him. They would not listen when he told them that he had them because of hip surgery when his old girl friend ran over him and broke his hip in 6 places. I think someone in that class turned him in because of what he said not because he was guilty.