ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

The New York Times reports that "crack cocaine offenders will receive shorter prison sentences under more lenient federal sentencing guidelines that went into effect" on Thursday.

The new guidelines will reduce the average sentence for crack cocaine possession to 8 years 10 months from 10 years 1 month. At a sentencing commission hearing in Washington on Nov. 13, members will consider whether to apply the guidelines retroactively to an estimated 19,500 crack cocaine offenders who were sentenced under the earlier, stricter guidelines.

The Times adds that "once the new guidelines were adopted it became the [sentencing] commission’s sole decision to apply the new rules retroactively or not."

ACS released an issue brief in 2006 by Nkechi Taifa that examines whether the International Race Convention can provide a basis for relief of the crack/powder sentencing disparity.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Kimbrough v. U.S. on October 2, which Professor Carol Steiker previewed here. Mary Price of FAMM wrote an op-ed on ACSBlog regarding the disparity here.