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For Immediate Release: December 16, 2008 Contact: Jasmine L. Tyler at 202-294-8292 PRESIDENTIAL COMMUTATIONS URGED FOR PRISONERS SERVING LONG CRACK COCAINE SENTENCES WASHINGTON, DC- As the holiday season approaches, and President George Bush's term comes to a close, a broad coalition of 29 civil rights, religious, academic and justice organizations have asked the president today to commute excessive sentences for low-level crack cocaine offenses. "Scripture reminds us that justice in the courts is a means of healing to society and families," said Bishop Jane Allen Middleton from the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. "Yet the disparity on sentences currently being handed down between crack and powder cocaine has unfairly targeted African-Americans and the poor," she said. "While legislation is needed to equalize these sentences, granting clemency to some of those serving unusually long sentences will send a much needed signal that our criminal justice system can and should be a means of healing to society and reunifying families separated by excessive incarceration." Prior to taking office in 2001, President Bush signaled support for reforming the controversial sentencing disparity for cocaine offenses. In a CNN interview, he said the crack-powder disparity "ought to be addressed by making sure the powder-cocaine and the crack-cocaine penalties are the same." Under current law, defendants convicted with as little as five grams, the weight of two sugar packets, are subject to a federal mandatory minimum sentence of five years. Offenses involving the pharmacologically identical powder cocaine do not trigger a five year mandatory minimum until a defendant sells 500 grams of the substance, 100 times the quantity of crack cocaine. In 2007, the U.S. Sentencing Commission lowered the sentencing guideline range for crack cocaine offenses because the penalties were considered excessive. They also voted to apply the guideline reductions to people currently incarcerated for crack cocaine offenses but the sentence reductions were limited by the mandatory minimum sentences that only Congress can amend. According to today's letter to Bush, the president's "clemency power is the only opportunity to advance immediate reform. By granting commutations to people who have already served long sentences for low-level crack offenses, [the president can] bring deserving citizens home for the holidays." Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Margaret Love has noted that "the president's personal intervention in a case through the pardon power not only benefits a particular individual, it reassures the public that the legal system is capable of just and moral application." And, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has urged that the pardon process be "reinvigorated" to respond to "unwise and unjust" federal sentencing laws, stating that "A people confident in its laws and institutions should not be ashamed of mercy." Today's letter to the president was also joined by a petition urging clemency for crack cocaine offenses signed by over 700 people.

President Bush: Please Commute Long Sentences for Crack Cocaine As the holiday season approaches, and President George Bush's term comes to a close, a broad coalition of 29 civil rights, religious, academic and justice organizations have asked the president today to commute excessive sentences for low-level crack cocaine offenses. "Scripture reminds us that justice in the courts is a means of healing to society and families," said Bishop Jane Allen Middleton from the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. "Yet, the disparity on sentences currently being handed down between crack and powder cocaine has unfairly targeted African-Americans and the poor," she said. "While legislation is needed to equalize these sentences, granting clemency to some of those serving unusually long sentences will send a much needed signal that our criminal justice system can and should be a means of healing to society and reunifying families separated by excessive incarceration." Click here to read more. Crack Sentencing Reform Makes Obama-Biden Transition's Priority List By Bruce Nicholson The Obama-Biden Transition has made elimination of the federal sentencing disparity for crack cocaine offense a key goal on its Agenda for Change in the 111th Congress. The Obama-Biden Transition Project, as it is formally known, will work to get the new administration up and running between now and the inauguration on January 20, 2009. The transition's website, www.change.gov, sets out an agenda divided into 22 issue areas. The Obama-Biden plan for change on crack sentencing is one of seven "Civil Rights" goals (there is no separate "criminal justice" issue area). The Obama-Biden transition reform goal is stated simply as follows: Eliminate Sentencing Disparities: Obama and Biden believe the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated. National Day of Advocacy - April 2009 By Kara Gotsch With a new president and Congress to begin in January, and a renewed political optimism, the Crack the Disparity Coalition has outlined a strategy to finally eliminate the excessive mandatory minimum penalties for low-level crack cocaine offenses. That strategy includes you. Without broad national support for crack cocaine sentencing reform, success on Capitol Hill will again elude us. The 100 to 1 sentencing quantity disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine was created by Congress under the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986. It has resulted in average sentences for crack cocaine offenses that are three years longer than for offenses involving powder cocaine. Sentences for crack cocaine are also nearly two years longer than for methamphetamine and four years longer than for heroin. Crack cocaine is the only drug that carries a mandatory prison sentence for a first-time possession offense. Student Activists Empowered by Lobbying, Advocacy On November 21, 2008, more than 200 students from across the United States descended on Capitol Hill to lobby Congress on repealing the 100 to 1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. The Lobby Day was the kickoff to the 2008 Students for Sensible Drug Policy 10th Anniversary International Conference, held November 21-23 at the University of Maryland in College Park. Students for Sensible Drug Policy is known for its advocacy on drug policies that directly impact young people and students, such as student drug testing and the law that denies federal financial aid to students with drug convictions. Lobbying for a change in policy that primarily impacts low-income African Americans was a welcome change for SSDP students. Save the Date: January 22-23, 2009: New Directions for New York: A Public Health & Safety Approach to Drug Policy, New York, NY April 27-28, 2009: Crack the Disparity Lobby Day, Washington, D.C. Media Attention A Fox News Three-Part Series on the case of Clarence Aaron, a former college student whose involvement in a 1993 cocaine deal got him three life sentences in federal prison. Washington Post Letter to the Editor Calling for President Bush to Use His Clemency Power on Individuals Serving Harsh Crack Cocaine Sentences. Maryland Daily Record Coverage on the Number of Individuals in the State that Have Received Sentence Reductions Since The USSC's 2007 Retroactive Adjustment ... And Look for an Opinion Piece on Commutations by Kemba Smith in USA Today Before the Close of the Year. The Crack the Disparity Coalition includes the American Bar Association, American Civil Liberties Union, Break the Chains, Drug Policy Alliance, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Open Society Policy Center, Restoring Dignity, Inc., Students for Sensible Drug Policy, The Sentencing Project, and United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society.