GIVE JUDGES POWER TO JUDGE

The U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Sentencing Commission struck
blows for fairness this week.

Monday, the Supreme Court restored to federal judges the power to
judge.

That is, it gave judges the power to deviate from sentencing
guidelines in order to better make punishment fit the particular crime.

That largely had been eliminated through mandatory and sometimes
draconian sentencing standards established by Congress.

Meanwhile, the issue before the Sentencing Commission was mandatory
sentence disparities for possession of crack or powder cocaine. Under
federal law, possession of 50 grams of crack cocaine carries the same
mandatory 10-year-sentence as possession of 5,000 grams of powder
cocaine.

That 100-to-1 standard was passed in reaction to the crack epidemic
of the 1980s. Congress sought to quell drug-related violence in big
cities with the harsh sentences. It quickly became obvious, however,
that most crack sentences were imposed on blacks while most powder
sentences were imposed on whites, even though they possessed the same
drug.

According to the commission, the average crack-possession sentence
turned out to be 17 percent longer than the average powder-possession
sentence.

An equalized standard took effect Nov. 1, after Congress did not
object to the commission's recommendation. (That recommendation first
was made in 1995, when U.S. District Judge Richard Conaboy of
Scranton headed the commission.)

This week the commission decided that the new fair standard should be
applied retroactively. Beginning next March, up to 19,500 federal
prisoners serving time for crack-related convictions will have the
opportunity to apply for adjusted sentences.

But adjustments will not be automatic. Because the Supreme Court has
restored judicial discretion to many aspects of sentencing, judges
across the country will be able to determine each sentence
application on its own merit, and according to the circumstances of
each crime.

That is just how the system should work. The historic decisions by
the court and the commission restored color-blindness to a large part
of the justice system.