Did the crack law change

Answer 1

On November 1, 2007, the amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines were passed, with the Sentencing Commission stating that this was a first step toward

eliminating the racial disparity set up by the Sentencing Guidelines. As of November 1, 2007, defendants sentenced in crack cases beganreceiving the benefit of the new Sentencing Guideline provisions. Defendants previously sentenced, however, did not.

What followed was an additional period for comment and debate concerning whether to specifically make the "crack" amendment retroactive. Specifically, the question for the U.S. Sentencing Commission was, "Do we allow those previously sentenced under this unjust and inequitable guideline suffer the injustice, or do we allow this amendment to be applied retroactively so that defendants previously sentenced in federal crackcases can ask the sentencing judge to reduce the previously-imposed

sentence to bring it in line with the amendment?"

After debate, public comment, and a public hearing in Washington, D.C., on December11, 2007, the U.S. Sentencing Commission did vote in favor of making the amendment retroactively applicable with a statement that theamendment will not become retroactive until March 3, 2008. There are some individuals who are ineligible for relief under this

amendment: 1) those sentenced to a statutory mandatory minimum

sentence; 2) those whose sentence was imposed pursuant to the Career

Offender enhancement where the Career Offender or Armed Career Criminal

enhancement increased the total offense level; and 3) those whose total

offense level was less than 12 or more than 43. Larry Levine - Owner www.americanprisonconsultants.com

Answer 2

Yes, in 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act reduced the sentencing disparity between offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine. This aimed to address the racial disparities and harsh penalties associated with crack cocaine offenses.