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Another district judge adopts 1-to1 crack/powder sentencing plan

By Douglas A. Berman

In this post last month, I reported on the thoughtful opinion in US v. Gully, No. CR 08-3005-MWB (N.D. Iowa May 18, 2009), Judge Mark Bennett explaining why  he adopted a 1:1 ratio for crack sentencing cases.  Thanks to a helpful reader, I can now post another thoughtful district court opinion, this one from Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that also mebraces a 1-to-1 crack-to-powder ratio.  The opinion in US v. Lewis, No. 04-0430 (D.D.C. June 9, 2009), can be downloaded below, and here is the key part of Judge Friedman's explanation for his sentencing plans: For all of these reasons, this Court disagrees, as a matter of policy, with both the amended 100-to-1 crack-to-powder ratio currently embodied in the Sentencing Guidelines and the 20-to-1 ratio the Sentencing Commission more recently endorsed for practical political reasons...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 10, 2009 (boomark / email).