Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Judge Bright laments post-Booker crack sentencing realities in Iowa

By Douglas A. Berman

Concurring in part and dissenting in part in an Eighth Circuit opinion in US v. Brewer, No. 09-3909 (8th Cir. Oct. 21, 2010) (available here), that is not otherwise that notable, Judge Myron Bright has a lot to say about disparties in crack sentencing approaches in the Northern District of Iowa. Here is part of his opinion: Who could have guessed that President Eisenhower?s decision nearly sixty years ago to create a national system of interstate highways would have an effect on sentencing in Iowa today?  Well, it has.  In the Northern District of Iowa, cases arising on one side of the interstate go to one district court judge while cases arising on the other go to a second judge. And one active judge uses a 1:1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine when sentencing violators of crack cocaine laws while the other follows the sentencing guidelines -? which here applied a 33:1 ratio...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 21, 2010 (boomark / email).