Cocaine sentencing guidelines
July 20, 2009
Iowa: Judge Mark Bennett is believed to be the first federal judge to sentence convicted drug dealers without complying with federal guidelines, based on policy differences. "The United States Supreme Court said that district court judges, if we wanted to, had a right to disagree with the (sentencing) guidelines if we had policy differences," Bennett says.
Under standard guidelines, someone convicted of dealing five grams of crack could get a five-year sentence, while someone dealing powder cocaine would have to be convicted of dealing 500 grams to get the same sentence. "Many federal judges thought that the 100-to-one ratio created too much disparity. The impact was to be highly-discriminatory towards African Americans" according to Bennett. So, Bennett is now sentencing both crack and powder cocaine dealers according to the milder powder cocaine guidelines.[1]
Footnotes
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Iowa, Southern District of Iowa • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Iowa, Southern District of Iowa
State courts:
Iowa Supreme Court • Iowa Court of Appeals • Iowa district courts
State resources:
Courts in Iowa • Iowa judicial elections • Judicial selection in Iowa
