NEW TERMS IN CRACK DEBATE

Attorney General Calls For Retroactive Use Of Shortened Cocaine Prison
Sentences

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that new reduced penalties
for federal crack-cocaine offenses should be applied retroactively,
setting up a clash over the potential release of thousands of drug
offenders currently in prison.

Speaking at a hearing of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the body that
crafts guidelines used by federal judges, Mr. Holder said the Obama
administration believed those sentenced under the older, stricter
rules, "who are not considered dangerous drug offenders," should get
the benefit of the new standards.

Mr. Holder's comments marked his first public statement on how past
crack-cocaine defendants should be handled since the Fair Sentencing
Act was signed into law last August. That law eased a much-criticized
disparity in the old rules""created in the 1980s in response to
rising violence and drug-addiction rates in urban areas""whereby
crack-cocaine crimes were punished far more harshly than those
relating to powder cocaine.

If the new guidelines are applied retroactively, 12,040 offenders
sentenced between Oct. 1, 1991 and Sept. 30, 2010 would be eligible to
seek reduced sentences, according to Sentencing Commission research.
About one-third of the group would be eligible for release, if
approved, by Nov. 1, 2012, while the releases as a whole would be
spread over 30 years. The average sentence would be reduced from 164
months to 127 months, Commission data showed.

Law enforcement and some congressional lawmakers remain opposed to
extending the guidelines to inmates whose crimes occurred before the
new law was signed.

The Fraternal Order of Police "strongly opposes any retroactive
application of the guidelines, as it would allow for the release of
thousands of convicted drug offenders into communities where state and
local law enforcement are already under immense pressure," said David
Hiller, national vice president of the nation's largest
law-enforcement labor organization.

Mr. Hiller also said most offenders who would be eligible for earlier
releasee were not first-time or low-level dealers.

Justice Department officials said that the department would not
support retroactivity for offenders who had used weapons in committing
their crimes or who had extensive criminal histories.

Federal sentences for crack-cocaine offenses have long been
controversial. Under the old rules, a defendant faced a minimum
five-year term if convicted of possessing at least five grams of
crack, whereas it took 500 grams of powder cocaine to bring the same
sentence. In addition to fears of increased violence, legislators were
responding to a belief that the drug is more addictive than powder
cocaine. Scientific studies have disproved that theory.

The disparity also sparked charges of racism: Most people sentenced
for crack are black, while those facing powder-cocaine charges tend to
be white or Hispanic.

Mr. Holder said that as a prosecutor he had seen the "devastating
effects of illegal drugs" on families and communities. He sentenced
offenders to lengthy sentences to protect the public, he said, but saw
over time that "our federal crack sentencing laws did not achieve that
result."

Under current law, it takes 28 grams of crack cocaine to bring a
five-year sentence. The new law also raised the 10-year-sentence
trigger for crack to 280 grams from 50 grams. The trigger for powder
cocaine to bring the same five- and 10-year sentences remains 500
grams and 5,000 grams respectively.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R., Texas), who
opposed the bill before it became law in 2010, said commissioners
would be overstepping their role if they approve retroactivity.

"Nothing in the act nor in the congressional record implies that
Congress ever intended that the new crack-cocaine guidelines should be
applied retroactively," he said in a written statement.

Mr. Smith said the administration's position "sends a dangerous
message to criminals and would-be drug offenders that Congress doesn't
take drug crimes seriously."

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas), a strong supporter of
retroactivity, said, "I think this is a correction long overdue."
People eligible to seek reduced sentences were nonviolent offenders,
many of whom were addicted and in need of rehabilitation, she said. "I
think it is the fair and just thing to do."