In dealing with the powder cocaine to crack 100-1 disparity post-Booker, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer gives us a nicely crafted Memorandum Opinion and Order regarding sentencing in United States v. Clay, Cr. No. 03-73 (E.D.Tenn. May 6, 2005). Our thanks to Carmen Hernandez for posting it on the BOPWatch group. As Carmen informs:
The opinion analyzes the problems with the crack/powder ratio. It also cites to other similar cases: United States v. Smith, 359 F.Supp.2d 771 (E.D.Wis.2005) (granting below Guidelines sentence to defendant convicted of crack offense); Simon v. United States, 2005 WL 711916 (E.D.N.Y.); United States v. Carvajal, 2005 WL 476125 (S.D.N.Y. ); United States v. Nellum, 2005 WL 300073, at *3 (N.D.In.).
I also know that some judges in DC have imposed sentences below the guideline range in crack cases but don't have those cites.
And Amy Baron-Evans, Nat'l Sentencing Resource Counsel, Federal Defender Office in Boston, adds a few more cases to the list:
Here are a couple of more cases, United States v. Thomas, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3972 (D. Mass. Mar. 14, 2005); United States v. Harris, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3958 (D.D.C. Mar. 7, 2005), and you can also say that the Sentencing Commission, in its recently published Fifteen Year Study, found that the 100 to 1 crack/powder quantity ratio creates racial disparity. See United States Sentencing Commission, Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing: An Assessment of How Well the Federal Criminal Justice System is Achieving the Goals of Sentencing Reform (2004), available at www.ussc.gov.
So there is a good deal of help for your next sentencing hearing involving crack cocaine. Again, our thanks to Carmen Hernandez and to Amy Baron-Evans.
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