The leading organization for federal prosecutors took a stand against their boss Thursday, urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission not to apply new crack cocaine sentencing guidelines to some inmates already in prison as Attorney General Eric Holder desires.
The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys is in “strong opposition” to Holder’s request to have the commission retroactively apply the more lenient sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses that were in the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, NAAUSA President Steven H. Cook wrote in a letter to Judge Patti B. Saris, the commission’s chairman. The act lowered the sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses in an attempt to remedy what many considered to be an inequitable discrepancy between sentences involving crack cocaine, more typically involving black offenders, and powder cocaine, often involving white offenders.
“Beyond the immeasurable crime impact occasioned by the earlier release of thousands of drug dealers, retroactive application would erode the confidence of the law enforcement community, and, in fact, the American people, in the federal criminal justice system,” wrote Cook, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee. “Every one of the convicted crack dealers who would benefit from the retroactive application of the crack sentencing amendments received a full measure of due process.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) also has expressed similar disapproval of Holder’s request to retroactively apply the guidelines.
Holder said in testimony before the commission Wednesday that to be truly fair, the new guidelines should be applied to imprisoned non-violent offenders who show they are worthy of leniency.
“Of course, in considering retroactive application of this amendment, protecting the American people is – and will remain – the Administration’s top priority,” Holder said. “President Obama and I, along with leaders across the Administration, understand how illegal drugs – including crack – ravage communities. Crack offenders – especially violent ones – should be punished.”
The Attorney General said the matter had great importance to him because he saw how the sentencing guidelines affected individuals, families and communities when he was a judge and U.S. Attorney in D.C.
“I know what it is like to sentence young offenders to long prison terms, and I did so to protect the public from those who were serious threats and who had engaged in violence,” Holder said. “However, throughout my tenure as this city’s U.S. Attorney, I also saw that our federal crack sentencing laws did not achieve that result. Our drug laws were not perceived as fair and our law enforcement efforts suffered as a result.”
Holder dismissed the notion that the commission didn’t have the power to make the guidelines retroactive without congressional approval.
Endorsement of the Attorney General’s recommendation requires the support of four of the six commissioners to take effect. If implemented, about 12,000 federal inmates — one in every 18 offenders in federal prisons — could have their sentences lowered by an average of three years, according to The Associated Press.
