Federal Prosecutors Drop Effort to Enforce Plea Agreement Waivers

CRACK SENTENCE CUTS WON'T BE OPPOSED

Federal prosecutors in Buffalo have decided not to use a
controversial legal strategy to prevent convicted crack cocaine
dealers from having their prison terms shortened.

U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn will not oppose reductions in crack
sentences based on a legal waiver that is routinely included in plea
agreements filed in the federal courts of Buffalo and Rochester.

"After a lot of discussion, this decision was made in the interest of
justice, in the interest of national uniformity of sentencing and in
the interest of not tying up the courts with a lot of additional
litigation," said Joseph M. Guerra III, chief of drug prosecutions in
Flynn's office.

"Whatever the government's reasons, I'm glad," said James P.
Harrington, a veteran defense attorney who represents many drug
offenders. "It's the right thing to do."

If Flynn had tried to oppose all the requests, it would have created
court disputes that could have taken hundreds of hours to resolve,
authorities said. It also would have made it harder for local
defendants to take advantage of a nationwide sentencing reform.

A national sentencing commission and Congress took action last year
to reduce the punishments of people convicted of crack cocaine crimes
in the federal courts. The changes were requested by civil rights
advocates who claimed the stiff sentences were discriminatory,
because most crack violators are from poor African-American neighborhoods.

The Buffalo News reported Monday that Flynn's office was considering
a legal fight against people already incarcerated because of federal
crack crimes. The legal challenge would have been based on a waiver
that is commonly included in federal plea agreements filed in Buffalo
and Rochester.

Convicts who signed the waiver agreed they would never ask for
reduced sentences, even if future changes in the law allowed them to do so.

Several defense attorneys and the president of the Buffalo Branch of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had
been upset that Flynn's office was considering enforcing the waiver.

Authorities estimate that 20,000 people who are serving federal crack
sentences throughout the nation will request sentence reductions
because of the changes enacted by Congress and the U.S. Sentencing
Commission. That number will include an estimated 200- plus men and
women who were convicted in federal courts in Buffalo and Rochester.

Judges will begin considering the requests March 3, according to
Richard J. Arcara, chief of the federal judges in Western New York.
Arcara said rulings will be made on a "case-by-case basis."

The federal court system has 94 districts. "We recently learned that
our district and possibly one other were the only ones that had this
waiver in their plea agreements," Guerra said. "That goes against the
goal of national uniformity in sentencing."