We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES EQUAL ACT ON TO FULL HOUSE
The House Committee on the Judiciary approved the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act (HR 1693) on Wednesday by a 36-5 vote, making the measure the leading contender for the first criminal justice reform bill to be passed by the 117th Congress.
The EQUAL Act would eliminate the federal crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity and retroactively apply it to those already convicted or sentenced. The sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine, at one point as high as 100 to 1, helped fuel the mass incarceration epidemic; 77.1% of crack cocaine trafficking offenders were Black, whereas most powder cocaine trafficking offenders were either white or Hispanic, according to a Fiscal Year 2020 report from the USSentencing Commission.
Even under the Fair Sentencing Act of 2021, which was intended to reduce the ratio to 1:1, compromises made to satisfy certain troglodytes in the Senate (yes, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, we’re talking about you) imposed an 18:1 ratio. That ratio meant that while one must be convicted of a crime involving 500 grams of cocaine to qualify for a minimum five-year sentence, a mere 28 grams of crack is enough to earn a defendant the same sentence.
The EQUAL Act was introduced earlier this year by Senators Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) and Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), as S.79. Beyond getting rid of the disparity, the bill would entitle those previously convicted of drug offenses to request a sentence reduction (which, like prior retroactive sentencing changed) would permit the sentencing judge to exercise discretion on granting or denying a lower sentence.
“For over three decades, unjust, baseless and unscientific sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine have contributed to the explosion of mass incarceration in the United States and disproportionately impacted poor people, Black and Brown people, and people fighting mental illness,” Booker said.
For those readers who skipped government class in high school, HR 1693 must still be voted on by the House of Representatives, just as the Senate version (S.79) – while receiving a lot of happy talk during a June 22 hearing – must be passed out of Committee and then put on the full Senate’s calendar. As of today, the measure is not on the Senate Judiciary Committee executive meeting calendar. As FAMM put it in an email blast yesterday, “The EQUAL Act goes to the full House of Representatives for a vote next, and then must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Biden before it can become law. The fight isn’t even close to over yet.”
House Judiciary Committee, Markup of H.R. 1693 (July 22, 2021)
Brooklyn Eagle, House Committee Passes EQUAL Act (July 22, 2021)
Regina, Saskatchewan, Leader-Post, U.S. politician wants everyone to ‘get real’ and admit weed doesn’t enhance performance, except maybe for hot dog eating (July 22, 2021)
– Thomas L. Root