Sonny's Corner

Sonny Foster "Sonny's Corner" is a regular column in Prairie Fire, featuring commentary on civil rights and justice issues. Our friend and Omaha colleague, Joseph P. "Sonny" Foster, died suddenly at age 54 in the autumn of 2006. He left an uncompleted agenda, as did many of our civil rights and justice mentors and heroes. We shall attempt to move forward on that unfinished agenda through this column.

New cocaine guidelines are an improvement

For decades now, federal judges have been forced to hand down tougher sentences for offenses involving crack cocaine than for those involving powder cocaine.

Now it seems likely that the unequal punishment will be lessened. The change is appropriate and overdue.

Federal judges often have chafed under sentencing requirements rooted in a law passed in 1986. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of Omaha once said, “In this case, the law is an ass” when he was forced to hand down a 70-month sentence because the cocaine was in the form of crack. If the cocaine had been powder, the sentence could have been as short as 18 months. At the time the law was passed, Congress said the disparity in sentences was justified because the effects of crack cocaine were so much more devastating than the effects of powder cocaine. Experience has not justified that assessment.

Since then, it has become evident that the effect of the harsher sentences for crack cocaine fall more heavily on black Americans. Crack cocaine is cheaper than powder, and the majority of crack offenders are black.

Critics say the law sets up a 100-to-1 disparity. Selling five grams of crack cocaine calls for a mandatory five-year sentence. An offender would have to sell 500 grams of powder cocaine to warrant the same sentence.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which issues guidelines based on the law, recommended to Congress earlier this year that the gap in sentencing guidelines be narrowed. The new guidelines will go into effect unless Congress rejects them before Nov. 1.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has created some uncertainty on how precisely the guidelines must be followed. A 2005 ruling said the guidelines were advisory. Then, in June, the court said that sentences within the guidelines could be considered reasonable.

Greater clarity may come from a case the nation’s high court heard earlier this month involving a black American Gulf War veteran arrested for selling crack and powder cocaine and possessing a gun. The judge in the case said a 19- to 22-year prison sentence called for by the guidelines was “ridiculous” and handed down a 15-year sentence. The sentence was appealed.

It’s been obvious for years now that the huge disparity in penalties for the different types of cocaine is unjustified.

Regardless of how much leeway the high court decides to allow judges, justice will be favorably served if Congress allows the new sentencing guidelines go into effect.

This editorial opinion originally appeared in the Oct. 11, 2007, online edition of the Lincoln Journal Star. It is reprinted with permission.

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