Federal drug laws produce a labeling issue. When you hear the term "drug trafficker," you might consider Pablo Escobar or Walter White, however the reality is that under federal law, drug traffickers consist of individuals who buy pseudo-ephedrine for their methamphetamine dealership; serve as middleman in a series of little transactions; or even get a suitcase for the incorrect pal. Thanks to conspiracy laws, everyone on the totem pole can be based on the exact same severe compulsory minimum sentences.
To the men and ladies who drafted our federal drug laws in 1986, this may come as a surprise. According to Sen. Robert Byrd, cosponsor of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, the factor to attach 5- and ten-year obligatory sentences to drug trafficking was to punish "the kingpins-- the masterminds who are truly running these operations", and the mid-level dealers.
Fast forward twenty-five years. Today, nearly everyone convicted of a federal drug criminal activity is convicted of "drug trafficking", which more often than not leads to at least a 5- or ten-year obligatory prison sentence. That's a great deal of time in federal prison for many individuals who are minor parts of drug trade, the large majority of whom are males and females of color.
This is the system that federal district Judge Mark Bennett sees every day. Judge Bennett sits on the district court in northern Iowa, and he handles a lot of drug cases., I would have sent out 1,092 of my fellow residents to federal jail for obligatory minimum sentences ranging from sixty months to life without the possibility of release.
The numbers can't communicate the absurd disaster of it all. This is how he explains a recent drug trafficking case:
I just recently sentenced a group of more than twenty defendants on meth trafficking conspiracy charges. All of them plead guilty. Eighteen were 'tablet smurfers,' as federal prosecutors put it, implying their function amounted to frequently buying and providing cold medication to meth cookers in exchange for extremely small, low-grade amounts to feed their severe dependencies. Most were out of work or underemployed. Several were single moms. They did not sell or directly disperse meth; there were no hoards of money, guns or counter surveillance devices. Yet all of them faced necessary minimum sentences of sixty or 120 months.
There is information to recommend that Judge Bennett's experience is not uncharacteristic. In 2007, the U.S. Sentencing Commission compiled substantial information on drug and crack sentencing. They found that in 2005, most of the lowest-level drug- and crack-trafficking defendants-- men and women referred to as "street-level dealerships", "couriers/mules", and "renter/loader/lookout/ enabler/users"-- received five- or ten-year necessary jail sentences. This is especially true for crack-cocaine accused, the majority of whom are black; regardless of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, selling a small quantity of crack drug (28 grams) brings the same obligatory minimum sentence-- 5 years-- as offering 500 grams of powder cocaine.
This is the reality for which proponents of extreme federal drug laws need to account. We can not pretend that heavy sentences for women like Kemba Smith and men like Jamel Dossie are the fluke mistakes of overboard laws. We should confess that our sentencing of small participants in the drug trade to prison terms meant for the leaders of large drug organizations-- as a common incident, not as an exception. As a result, we unnecessarily send to prison lots of minor culprits for long periods. Judge Bennett decries the human expenses of these sentences:
If prolonged mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug user really worked, one might be able to justify them. But there is no evidence that they do. I have seen how they leave hundreds of countless kids parent-less and countless aging, infirm and passing away moms and dads childless. They damage families and mightily fuel the cycle of poverty and addiction.
Here, once again, we have proof that Judge Bennett is right: long necessary sentences are unneeded for the majority of drug transgressors. In 2002 and 2003, Michigan and NYC repealed mandatory sentences for drug offenders and gave judges the power to impose shorter sentences, probation, or drug treatment. The sky didn't fall, but criminal offense rates did. So did prison costs.
For decades, Judge Bennett has seen a system that doesn't make sense. He has seen mandatory laws written for the most serious, large-scale drug dealers applied to the men and women on the lowest rungs of the drug trade, and he has seen it happen a lot. We once imagined that severe mandatory sentences would be used to deal with the leaders of large drug operations. It's time our federal drug laws were fit to the people that they really target.
If you have been charged with a drug related offense and www.criminallawyerslasvegas.com/drug-conspiracy-defense-las-vegas/ need qualified representation, contact us to discuss your case.
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