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Thoughtful new district court opinion adopting 1:1 crack/powder ratio

By Douglas A. Berman

I am pleased to be able to post a new opinion from a district court that provides a thorough and thoughtful account of why the court has adopted a 1:1 ratio for crack sentence cases.  Here is the openning paragraph and one key passage from US v. Gully, No. CR 08-3005-MWB (N.D. Iowa May 18, 2009): Defendant Demetrius Darnell Gully was before the court on May 14, 2009, for sentencing on his guilty plea, without a plea agreement, to four charges of distributing less than 5 grams of crack cocaine, arising from ?controlled buys? in January 2008, after a prior felony drug conviction in 2004. Three of the counts charged that the distributions occurred within 1,000 feet of a public playground or school.  This ?crack? case raises the following questions: (1) Whether the court has discretion to impose a 1:1 crack-to-powder ratio in sentencing; and (2) whether a 1:1 ratio is appropriate in this case...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).