Senate panel leaves sentencing regs alone
Published: Feb. 13, 2008 at 1:47 PM
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate rebuffed Attorney General Michael Mukasey's bid to void sentencing rules he said could return criminals to the street.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently decided to apply lower jail terms retroactively to as many as 19,500 crack cocaine offenders previously sentenced under tougher legislation from the 1980s, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
About 1,600 of those inmates could apply for reduced sentences this year, the commission said. The new guidelines become effective March 3.
Mukasey had asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to roll back the recommendations, arguing that the applications for sentence reductions could clog federal courts and put dangerous criminals on the streets. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., accused Mukasey of creating public fear that "dangerous drug offenders will be instantaneously and automatically set free to prey on hapless communities."
Current federal law requires that a powdered cocaine offender possess 100 times more of the drug than a crack-cocaine offender to receive the same sentence.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., sponsored legislation to reduce the sentencing disparity.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently decided to apply lower jail terms retroactively to as many as 19,500 crack cocaine offenders previously sentenced under tougher legislation from the 1980s, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
About 1,600 of those inmates could apply for reduced sentences this year, the commission said. The new guidelines become effective March 3.
Mukasey had asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to roll back the recommendations, arguing that the applications for sentence reductions could clog federal courts and put dangerous criminals on the streets. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., accused Mukasey of creating public fear that "dangerous drug offenders will be instantaneously and automatically set free to prey on hapless communities."
Current federal law requires that a powdered cocaine offender possess 100 times more of the drug than a crack-cocaine offender to receive the same sentence.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., sponsored legislation to reduce the sentencing disparity.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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A Palestinian refugee Mohamad Harb 85 year Old . shows his old house keys from his former village as a symbol of hope that his may return his one day on May 12, 2008 in his Rafah refugee camp which is located within the Gaza Strip. Harb used to live in the village of Hmamh before his family was forced to immigrate to the Gaza Strip in 1948. After sixty years Harb has hope of returning to his old village which is now in Israeli territory and is named Kreat Hmamh. Traditionally Palestinians commemorate May 15th as Nakba Day or Catastrophe Day, the day the Israeli State was created in 1948.(UPI Photo/Ismael Mohamad)
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