The sponsor of House legislation to eliminate the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences told Main Justice Friday that he and House colleagues are unsure about whether they will proceed with the Senate’s version of the bill.

Robert Scott (Gov)

Rep. Robert Scott (D-Va.), who introduced the House measure last July and has long championed the change, said he is keeping all options open and a final decision should come in “a week or so.”

“The only thing that can really be justified is a total elimination of the disparity,” Scott said. “But the [Senate] bill is better than what we’ve got.”

The Senate passed its version by voice vote Wednesday. That measure, called the Fair Sentencing Act, would establish a new 18-to-1 sentencing ratio for crack and powder cocaine offenses. By contrast, the House version would eliminate the current decades-old sentencing law that sets a 100-to-1 ratio. That law requires the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the measure last July by a 16-9 party-line vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved its legislation last week by unanimous consent. Like their House counterparts, Senate Democrats initially sought to eliminate the disparity altogether but agreed to the 18-to-1 ratio to win Republican support.

Democrats have argued the law tends to disproportionately target blacks because crack is typically used in poorer urban communities. Scott said any difference between crack and cocaine sentences “makes no sense.”

The Justice Department has expressed support efforts for eliminating the differences between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said at a House hearing in May that the current sentencing policies are “hard to justify.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday that takes a significant step toward reducing the disparity between sentences for powder cocaine and crack cocaine.

Crack cocaine (iStock)

The committee voted, 19-0, to approve the Fair Sentencing Act. Before approving the measure, the panel voted, 17-1, to reduce the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties to 18-to-1. As originally introduced by Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the panel, the bill would have established the same sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses.

The decades-old sentencing law currently gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine. The bill endorsed by the panel Thursday would give the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of 28 grams of crack cocaine as it does for the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine.

Democrats have said the law tends to disproportionately target blacks, because crack is typically used in poorer urban communities.

“I know this agreement is not everything we would like. Frankly, it is not everything that I would like either,” Durbin said Thursday. “But this is a historic day. The Senate Judiciary Committee has never reported a bill to reduce this crack-powder disparity.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel’s ranking Republican, said that the bill reported out of committee strikes the right balance in addressing concerns that the current sentencing guidelines unjustly targets blacks and the needs of law enforcement officials.

“We are dealing with a real law enforcement issue that needs to be handled and the sentences need to be adjusted in a way that’s significant, meaningful and makes a real difference, but also doesn’t inadvertently undermine the ability of our law enforcement community trying to make our neighborhoods safer,” Sessions said.

The House Judiciary Committee approved its version of the legislation in July. Unlike the Senate bill, the House legislation eliminates mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine and crack offenses.

The Justice Department has expressed support efforts for eliminating the differences between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said at a House hearing in May that the current sentencing policies are “hard to justify.”

Attorney General Eric Holder met Tuesday with René Préval, the president of Haiti, during his first trip to the United States following the devastating earthquake that struck the Caribbean country in January.

The primary focus of the meeting was to discuss drug trafficking, though the Attorney General also took the opportunity to express his sympathies for the recent tragedy in Haiti, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.

Haiti is one of the main shipping points in the Caribbean for Colombian cocaine traffic, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration fact sheet on drug trafficking.

Préval also met with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on Tuesday, and said it would be a “mistake” to rebuild Port-au-Prince as it was before the earthquake. Préval instead urged a post-quake effort to develop Haiti’s provinces, according to a report by the Voice of America.

President Obama will meet with Préval on Wednesday.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Haitian President René Préval on Tuesday (DOJ).

The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote Thursday on the nomination of Richard Callahan to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, according to the panel’s Web site.

Richard Callahan (Gov)

President Barack Obama tapped Callahan, a state circuit judge in Missouri, for the post in October. He would succeed former U.S. Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway, who resigned earlier this year. Read more about Callahan here.

The panel has endorsed 26 U.S. Attorney nominees and 24 of those have won Senate confirmation thus far.  The committee has yet to schedule votes for another seven would-be U.S. Attorneys.

The committee’s agenda for Thursday also includes a bill that would establish the same sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses. The House Judiciary Committee approved its version of the legislation in July.

In addition, the panel is scheduled to resume consideration of legislation that would make it harder for courts to order reporters to divulge their sources. The media shield bill has been on the committee’s agenda since April.

Senate Democrats introduced legislation Thursday that would establish the same sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses.

The Fair Sentencing Act, sponsored by Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and nine other Democrats, would end the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties enacted in the 1980s. The bill would also trigger a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of 500 grams of either of the substances.

The decades-old law gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the possession of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine. Democrats have said the law tends to disproportionately harm blacks, because crack is generally used in poorer urban communities.

“The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine has contributed to the imprisonment of African Americans at six times the rate of whites and to the United States’ position as the world’s leader in incarcerations,” Durbin said in a statement. “Congress has talked about addressing this injustice for long enough; it’s time for us to act.”

The cosponsors of the bill are Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Judiciary crime and drugs subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Judiciary panel members Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) and Al Franken (D-Min.) Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) are also cosponsors.

The House Judiciary Committee approved its version of the legislation in July. Unlike the Senate bill, the House legislation eliminates mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine and crack offenses.

The Justice Department supports Congress’s efforts to eliminate the differences between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said at a House hearing in May that the current sentencing policies are “hard to justify.”

The House Judiciary Committee endorsed legislation today that would establish the same sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses.

The Democrat-backed “Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009” was reported out of committee by a 16-9 vote along party lines. The legislation would eliminate the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties put in place by Congress in the 1980s. The decades old law gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the sale of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the sale of 500 grams of powder cocaine. The legislation supported by the panel today also would abolish mandatory minimum sentences for crack and remove distinctions between powder cocaine and crack offenses.

“This distinction is no longer considered rational,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), chair of the House Judiciary crime, terrorism and homeland security subcommittee, said at the meeting today.

Panel Republicans tried to kept mandatory penalties for powder cocaine and crack offenses in place, but were unsuccessful. The committee tabled an amendment offered by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that would have maintained a mandatory minimum prison sentence for powder cocaine and crack offenses.

“The bill sends the wrong message to drug dealers and those who traffic in ravaging human lives,” said House Judiciary Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) at the meeting. “It sends the message that Congress does not take drug crimes seriously.”

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer has stood in support  of Congress’s efforts to eliminate the differences between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. He said at a hearing in May that the current sentencing policies – which disfavor blacks because crack is generally sold in poor urban communities – are “hard to justify.”

This post has been corrected from an earlier version.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) tried to stay serious throughout the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. But a slip-up about sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses from the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday left the room in stitches.

“Sen. [Patrick] Leahy and I were talking during these hearings, we’re going to do that crack cocaine thing you and I have talked about before,” said Sessions to President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Wade Henderson during witness testimonies.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) then called on the Alabama senator to restate his statement. He said, laughing, “I misspoke. We’re going to reduce the burden of penalties in some of the crack cocaine cases and make them fair.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in May about revising the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties put in place by Congress in the 1980s. The decades old law gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the sale of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the sale of 500 grams of powder cocaine.

The Justice Department has stood in support of efforts to eliminate the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing.

Yesterday evening, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Lev L. Dassin and Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Michele M. Leonhart announced that Gerardo Aguilar Ramirez, a former front commander in the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC), has been extradited from Colombia to the United States, where he will face cocaine importation conspiracy charges.

The FARC, in addition to being designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department, is the world’s largest cocaine manufacturer, producing more than half the world’s cocaine supply, and over two-thirds of the cocaine imported into the U.S.  According to press releases from the DOJ and DEA, Ramirez and others voted unanimously at a leadership meeting over 8 years ago to kidnap and murder U.S. citizens to dissuade the U.S. from supporting the Colombian government’s cocaine fumigation efforts against the FARC.

Ramirez is also charged in a separate indictment in a hostage-taking conspiracy involving four U.S. citizens, one of whom was executed, but will not be tried on the charges because the Colombian Supreme Court has not approved Ramirez’s extradition on the charges.  Ramirez is scheduled to be presented this morning at 10:30 a.m. in District of Columbia federal court before U.S, District Judge Thomas F. Hogan.  Codefendants Erminso Cuevas Cabrera, Jorge Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta, and Juan Jose Martinez Vega were previously extradited on the indictment, and are currently scheduled for trial on Jan. 5, 2010.  Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case in the District of Colombia.

The release also states that the State Department has offered $75 million in rewards for information leading to the arrest of the highest-ranking FARC leadership defendants, who remain fugitives.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Snyder, Pablo Quinones, and Randall Jackson are in charge of the prosecution.

You can read the DOJ press release in its entirety below:

LEADER OF COLOMBIAN NARCO-TERRORIST GROUP EXTRADITED TO UNITED STATES ON COCAINE

IMPORTATION CHARGES

NEW YORK - Lev L. Dassin, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), today announced that Gerardo Aguilar Ramirez, aka “Cesar,” a former front commander in the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC), has been extradited from Colombia to the United States to face cocaine importation conspiracy charges.

The FARC, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, is Colombia’s main leftist rebel group.  Aguilar Ramirez was extradited on an indictment, unsealed March 1, 2006, in the District of Columbia, in which the United States has levied charges against fifty of the top leaders of the FARC.  According to the indictment and documents filed by the United States in Colombian extradition proceedings:

The FARC, which occupies large swaths of territory in Colombia, is a hierarchical organization comprised of 12,000 to 18,000 members.  At the lowest level, the FARC is made up of 77 distinct military units, called Fronts, organized by geographical location.  These in turn are grouped into seven “blocs.”  The FARC is led by a seven-member Secretariat and a 27-member Central General Staff, or “Estado Mayor,” responsible for setting the cocaine policies of the FARC.  The FARCis responsible for the production of more than half the world’s supply of cocaine and nearly two-thirds of the cocaine imported into the United States.  It is the world’s leading cocaine manufacturer.  The FARC initially involved itself in the cocaine and cocaine paste trade by imposing a “tax” on individuals involved in every stage of cocaine production.  Later, in the 1990s, recognizing the profit potential, FARC leadership ordered that the FARC become the exclusive buyer of the raw cocaine paste used to make cocaine in all areas under FARC occupation.  Before his capture on July 2, 2008, Aguilar Ramirez was the commander of theFARC’s 1st Front and was ultimately responsible for all of that front’s criminal activities.  In that capacity he conspired with others to, among other things, manufacture and distribute thousands of tons of cocaine in Colombia, with the knowledge and intent that such cocaine would be imported into the United States.

In the late 1990s, the FARC leadership met and voted unanimously in favor of a number of resolutions, including resolutions to: expand coca production in areas of Colombia under FARC control; expand the FARC’s international distribution routes; increase the number of crystallization labs in which cocaine paste would be converted into cocaine; appoint members within each Front to be in charge of coca production; raise prices that the FARC would pay to campesinos (peasant farmers) from whom they purchased cocaine paste; and mandate that better chemicals be used to increase the quality of cocaine paste.

Further, recognizing that the FARC could not survive without its cocaine revenue, the indicted members of the Secretariat and Estado Mayor directed its members to attack and disrupt coca eradication fumigation efforts, including shooting down fumigation aircraft; forcing local farmers to participate in rallies against fumigation; and attacking Colombian infrastructure to force the Colombian Government to divert resources from fumigation.  Recognizing that the United States has contributed significantly to Colombian fumigation efforts, the FARC leaders also ordered FARC members to kidnap and murder U.S. citizens in order to dissuade the United States from its continued efforts to fumigate and disrupt the FARC’s cocaine manufacturing and distribution activities.  In late 2001 or early 2002, Aguilar Ramirez and other FARC leaders participated in a meeting at which they voted unanimously to encourage the kidnapping of U.S. citizens for that purpose.  The meeting also resulted in resolutions to, among other things: increase cocaine trafficking routes overseas, including to the United States; establish better ways to exchange cocaine and cocaine paste for weapons; pay more to campesinos for cocaine paste; and to apply “Revolutionary Justice,” including murder, to any campesino who failed to sell coca to the FARC.

Aguilar Ramirez is also charged in a separate indictment in a hostage-taking conspiracy involving four U.S. citizens — Marc D. Gonsalves, Thomas R. Howes, Keith D. Stensell and Tom Janis — whose plane crashed in February 2003 in FARC-occupied territory in the Colombian jungle.  The four were captured by theFARC.  Janis was executed and the remaining three were led into captivity and held hostage for more than five years until their rescue on July 2, 2008.  Aguilar Ramirez was captured at that time while holding the three American hostages.  The Colombian Supreme Court has not approved Aguilar Ramirez’s extradition on these charges, however; it has only approved his extradition on the narcotics conspiracy charges, and therefore Aguilar Ramirez will be tried only on those narcotics charges.

Aguilar Ramirez, 50, is scheduled to be presented tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. in District of Columbia federal court before U.S, District Judge Thomas F. Hogan.  Codefendants Erminso Cuevas Cabrera, aka “Mincho,” Jorge Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta, aka “Ivan Vargas,” and Juan Jose Martinez Vega, aka “Chiguiro,” were previously extradited on the indictment, and are currently scheduled for trial beginning Jan. 5, 2010.  Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case in the District of Colombia.

The State Department has offered $75 million in rewards for information leading to the arrest of the highest-ranking FARC leadership defendants, who remain fugitives.

“The FARC’s terrorist and cocaine-trafficking activities pose an extraordinarily grave threat to the people of Colombia and the United States,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Dassin. “We are committed, together with Colombian authorities and United States law enforcement agencies, to attacking FARC’s criminal leadership.  The extradition of Aguilar Ramirez, alleged to be a high-level FARC commander, is another milestone in this office’s fight against narco-terrorism worldwide.”

“Today’s extradition of Aguilar Ramirez continues our unwavering commitment to bring to justice leaders of this violent narco-terrorist organization,” said DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.  “Aguilar Ramirez is alleged, as commander of one of the FARC’s most dangerous fronts, to have participated in decisions to kidnap Americans and to attack the Colombian infrastructure in support of the FARC’s massive narco-terrorism operations.  He will now face justice.”

The investigation resulting in these charges was led by the International Narcotics Trafficking Unit of U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, working with the New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force (which is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, the New York City Police Department, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, and the New York State Police) and the DEA’s Bogota, Colombia, Country Office.  The investigation, conducted under the auspices of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program, involved unprecedented cooperation from the Colombian Military, the Colombian National Police, and the Colombian Fiscalia.  Mr. Dassin praised all the law enforcement partners involved in the investigation, and thanked the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, as well as Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section attachés in Bogota for their involvement in the extradition process.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Snyder, Pablo Quinones and Randall Jackson are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations.  All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

Former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan urged members of the House Judiciary crime, terrorism and homeland security subcommittee this morning to retain mandatory minimum sentences for serious crimes.

Michael J. Sullivan (Ashcroft Sullivan)

The panel is considering four bills that seek to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes including crack cocaine offenses and law enforcement officials who use their guns in a crime while on duty.

The bills under consideration are:

-H.R. 834: Ramos and Compean Justice Act of 2009

-H.R. 2934: Common Sense in Sentencing Act of 2009

-H.R. 1466: Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act of 2009

-H.R. 1459: Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009

Sullivan said that the risk of a long mandatory sentence entices drug offenders to cooperate during investigations.

“Without the mandatory minimum, a lot of the regional and national drug investigations would be stalled,” said Sullivan, a partner at Boston law firm Ashcroft Sullivan, which was founded by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said at the hearing today that prosecutors in white collar cases and other complex cases are still able to get cooperation without imposing mandatory minimum sentences.

“There are ways to bring conviction without mandatory minimum sentences,” said Stewart, the wife of Office of Legislative Affairs head Ron Weich. The Assistant Attorney General has said he will recuse himself from all matters involving mandatory sentencing policies because of his wife’s advocacy work.

Subcommittee Democrats said mandatory sentencing laws unfairly target blacks and do not fit the crime.

The panel held a hearing in May about the legislation that will revise the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties put in place by Congress in the 1980s. The decades old law gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the sale of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the sale of 500 grams of powder cocaine.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer has stood in support  of Congress’s efforts to eliminate the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing.

“We know the mandatory minimum sentences do not work,” said subcommittee Chair Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.)

Panel Republicans said some of the laws could be tweaked, but mandatory minimum sentences should not be eliminated completely.

“When the thermostat is swung from one extreme temperature to another, people get sick,” said subcommittee Ranking Member Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Sullivan agreed with the Republicans. He said there are very few examples of mandatory minimum sentences that were unwarranted.

“The vast majority received sentences that are appropriate under the current sentencing scheme,” Sullivan said.

The panelists at the hearing also discussed the Ramos and Compean Justice Act, which would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for law enforcement officials who use their guns in a crime while on duty.

The bill is named for former Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who shot a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks and tried to cover the incident up. Former Bush aide Johnny Sutton, the former U.S. Attorney in San Antonio, led the 2005 prosecution that outraged conservative commentators and even many Democrats, most prominently Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.

Ramos was sentenced to 11 years. Compean received a 12 year sentence. They received the sentences because of mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), sponsor of the Ramos and Compean Justice Act, successfully lobbied President Bush to commute their sentences in January, which set them free.

National Border Patrol Council President T. J. Bonner, whose organization represents border law enforcement officials, said at the hearing that mandatory minimum sentencing laws affect the morale of agents trying to do their job.

“This is a problem that needs to be addressed,” Bonner said.

D.C. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman became one of the first judges to employ the same sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine and crack offenses, The Blog of the Legal Times reported today.

Defendant Anthony Lewis was sentenced to 162 months for possessing 18.7 grams of crack, but yesterday Friedman lowered his sentence to 130 months, according to The BLT. Northern District of Iowa U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett implemented the same standards as Friedman last month, The BLT said.

“Thus, in the future, this Court will apply the 1-to-1 ratio in all crack cocaine cases and then will separately consider all aggravating factors applicable in any individual case, such as violence, injury, recidivism or possession or use of weapons,” Friedman wrote, according to The BLT.

The House Judiciary crime, terrorism and homeland security subcommittee is considering a series of bills that will revise the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine penalties established by Congress in the 1980s. The decades old law gives the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the sale of five grams of crack cocaine as it does for the sale of 500 grams of powder cocaine.

The Justice Department has called for the end of the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. DOJ Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer the current sentencing policies – which disfavor blacks because crack is generally sold in poor urban communities – are “hard to justify.”