LOWER CRACK SENTENCES TO APPLY RETROACTIVELY

Thousands of prisoners serving time for crack cocaine could have their
sentences trimmed by several years after the U.S. Sentencing
Commission voted Thursday to retroactively apply a law easing
penalties for possession of the drug.

Inmates sentenced as far back as 1991 for crack crimes will be able to
apply for reduced sentences. The 6-0 vote by the panel that sets
sentencing guidelines used by federal judges could affect as many as
12,040 inmates, according to the commission.

The commission's decision goes into effect Nov. 1 unless Congress
moves to stop it. Some lawmakers oppose retroactivity, a debate that
goes to the heart of what Congress intended when it rewrote the crack
laws in 2010.

In a recent letter to Commission Chairwoman Patti Saris, 13 Republican
House and Senate lawmakers said, "It is not titled The Fair Sentencing
Act for All Years. As we noted in our last letter to the Commission,
the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 makes no mention of retroactivity.
That is by design."

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R., Texas), one of the members who signed that
letter, said in an interview Thursday that lawmakers had made clear
what they intended with the new law, only to have it ignored. "I think
it's outrageous what they've done."

Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) and the ranking member of the Senate
Judiciary Committee said the Sentencing Commission's "complete
disregard for congressional intent is upsetting and offensive."

Mr. Grassley said the unelected commission "took matters into its own
hands" and directly contradicted the wishes of Congress. "Unless the
commission's rule-making authority starts complementing rather than
contradicting the will of Congress, we're going to need to take a good
look at what the future of the commission is."

Senate Democrat and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D.,
Vt.) applauded the commission's vote, calling it a "courageous decision."

Under the old law, a defendant faced a minimum five-year sentence if
convicted of possessing at least five grams of crack. Possession of 50
grams brought a minimum of 10 years. It took 500 grams and 5,000
grams, respectively, of powder cocaine to bring the same sentences.
The law was designed to address violence in urban areas and a belief
that crack was more addictive than powder cocaine.

Over the years, the old disparity led to charges of racism, and
research disproved the notion that crack was more addictive. Most
people serving time for crack are black, while those serving time for
powder-cocaine charges tend to be white or Hispanic. The new law
raised the trigger amount for a five-year sentence to 28 grams of
crack cocaine. The 10-year trigger is 280 grams of crack cocaine. The
powder cocaine penalties remained the same.

Commission Vice Chairman William Carr Jr., a former federal
prosecutor, said voting against retroactivity after Congress's move
last year would be "unconscionable."

The Commission had to create new guidelines to fall in line with the
new mandatory minimums. Attorney General Eric Holder said in June that
the Obama administration supported the reduced penalties for
non-dangerous offenders already in prison.

His comments marked the first public statements on the
administration's position on how past crack-cocaine defendants should
be handled since the Fair Sentencing Act was signed into law last August.

The commission's action "does not mean defendants are free to leave
prison immediately," said Ms. Saris, the commission chairwoman and a
federal District Court judge in Massachusetts.

Reduced sentences would have to be approved by a federal judge on a
case-by-case basis. Judges would consider such factors as whether a
prisoner was deemed dangerous or has been rehabilitated. The average
sentence would be reduced from about 131/2 years to 101/2 years, the
commission said.

Thursday's vote marks the second time in four years the Commission has
voted to apply reduced crack penalties retroactively. In 2007 it made
guideline changes that reduced penalties on crack defendants. More
than one-third of the 25,515 inmates who sought reduced sentences were
rejected.