JUDGE: COCAINE SENTENCING DISPARITY 'UNCONSCIONABLE'

WASHINGTON A federal judge who served as a top drug policy advisor to the
first President Bush and advocated harsher penalties for crack cocaine
crimes said Tuesday the policy had gone too far and was undermining faith
in the judicial system.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton told the U.S. Sentencing Commission
that federal laws requiring dramatically longer sentences for crack cocaine
than for cocaine powder were "unconscionable" and contributed to the
perception within minority communities that courts are unfair.

"I never thought that the disparity should be as severe as it has become,"
said Walton, who sits on the bench in Washington, where he previously
served as a Superior Court judge, a federal prosecutor and a deputy drug czar.

The current law includes what critics have called the 100-to-1 disparity:
Trafficking in 5 grams of cocaine carries a mandatory five-year prison
sentence, but it takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same
sentence.

Advocates for changing the law point to crime statistics that show crack is
more of an inner-city drug while cocaine powder is used more often in the
suburbs.

The Sentencing Commission which has thrice recommended that Congress narrow
the sentencing gap, is again reviewing the disparity. Previous
recommendations, which were not adopted, have included raising the
penalties for powder cocaine and lowering them for crack.

The Bush administration, like the Clinton administration, indicated Tuesday
that it welcomed a discussion about the sentencing disparity but adamantly
opposed lowering the penalties for crack.