FEDERAL SENTENCING GUIDELINES CHANGE TODAY FOR SOME DRUG CRIMES

New federal sentencing guidelines go into effect today, raising or
reducing the time that drug offenders spend in prison depending on the
quantity of drugs involved or the role the defendant played in the
crime.

Last week, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to temporarily
implement changes Congress made to the guidelines when the Fair
Sentencing Act was passed into law over the summer.

The guidelines are used by federal judges to give a range of possible
sentences in criminal cases.

The Fair Sentencing Act is intended to equalize sentencing in cases
involving crack cocaine versus powder cocaine.

Federal sentences have been much stiffer in crack-cocaine cases.
Advocates argued that that punished African-American defendants, who
often dealt in crack cocaine more than powder, more harshly than white
suburban users of powder cocaine.

The temporary amendment may become permanent when the commission meets
in May and votes on finalizing the changes.

In Colorado, U.S. Attorney John Walsh says his prosecutors are still
evaluating the new guidelines but that he doesn't expect to see
notable changes in sentencing in drug cases.

"The impact this will have on our cases as a group is less than it
would be in those jurisdictions where they are bringing smaller crack
cases," Walsh said. "Our focus has always been on major drug
trafficking. While they have an impact, we don't think they are going
to have a dramatic impact."

Sentencing Triggers

The old guidelines triggered a five-year mandatory minimum prison term
if a defendant had 5 grams or more of crack cocaine.

The new law increased the mandatory-five-year-minimum trigger to 28
grams of crack.

For a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence under the old guidelines,
defendants needed only to possess 50 grams of crack; now, the
triggering quantity is 280 grams.

While the mandatory-minimum changes may have a fairer result for some
defendants, other changes to the drug sentencing guidelines could mean
longer prison time for others.

The new guidelines add several months of prison time for "aggravating
factors" for leaders of drug rings who coerce or intimidate a
girlfriend or elderly family member to deal drugs.

The guidelines could also give reductions for low-level offenders who
were intimidated into working in a drug business.

Raymond Moore, Colorado's federal public defender, called the
guideline changes a "political compromise" that doesn't go far enough
to achieve fairness in sentencing.

"The effect of those additions may well offset the meager gains for
the crack defendants and will undoubtedly increase the guideline range
for a variety of noncrack defendants," he said. "I am not Nostradamus,
but my guess is that all the telling of the reduction in the guideline
range will be more illusory than real and for some it will go up."

No Big Change Expected

Walsh says prosecutors already seek tougher sentences for drug
offenders who play lead roles in drug organizations or use violence or
intimidation and that judges already take those factors into account.

"So while these aggravating factors do provide a framework and a
mathematical methodology for getting a large guideline range, the
truth is the courts have been taking that into account forever," he
said.

"While this will give us and the probation department a basis to come
up with a higher guideline change, I don't think that anyone here
believes that will result in across-the-board much-higher sentences,"
Walsh said.

Critics of the old guidelines say the next hurdle is getting Congress
to apply the changes retroactively so prisoners serving sentences
handed down in the 1980s and 1990s can benefit from the reductions.

Jennifer Seltzer-Stitt, legislative-affairs director of Families
Against Mandatory Minimums, said the stories of those who were
sentenced under unfair crack guidelines inspired Congress to act.

"But the people who personified the injustice will continue to
suffer," she said. "A really good analogy that someone else used is
when a car company discovers something is broken, they fix it and then
they recall all the cars and fix them."