U.S. Supreme Court skeptical of expanding crack cocaine reforms
Reuters | May 04, 2021 08:51 PM EDT
People walking a dog greet police officers and their dog outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S (Photo : REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday seemed skeptical that low-level crack cocaine offenders can benefit under a 2018 federal law that reduced certain prison sentences in part to address racial disparities detrimental to Black defendants.
The nine justices heard their final arguments of the court s nine-month term that began last October in a case involving a Florida man named Tarahrick Terry that tests the scope of the First Step Act signed into law by former President Donald Trump.
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Proponents who have openly challenged sentencing guidelines for low-level crack cocaine offenders have argued that the laws have disproportionately affected Black people versus their white counterparts. On Tuesday (May 4), the nation’s highest court weighed the merits of reducing the sentences of those offenders as both liberal and conservative members of the bench offered opinions.
As reported by
NPR, the United States Supreme Court heard the case of Tarahrick Terry, a Black man who was slapped with nearly 16 years in prison back in 2008 for possessing less than five grams of crack cocaine totally to about $50 in street worth. If the substance were pure powder, the cost would be significantly higher.
Supreme Court Seems Unlikely to Support Reduced Sentences for Crack Offenders Getty Images Kevin Daley • May 4, 2021 4:30 pm
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In its latest foray into the war on drugs, the Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed ready to say that low-level crack cocaine offenders do not qualify for reduced sentences under a bipartisan criminal justice reform law.
The 2018 First Step Act made some drug offenders eligible for resentencing, but four federal courts and the Trump administration said its benefits don t extend to people convicted for possessing small quantities of crack cocaine. Tarahrick Terry, the defendant in Tuesday s case, was convicted for possessing a few grams of crack in 2008 and is seeking a lighter sentence for himself and others like him, but the Court seemed to be against him by a lopsided margin.
The U.S. Supreme Court. (Courthouse News photo/Jack Rodgers)
WASHINGTON (CN) In its last hearing of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over whether people jailed for possession of small amounts of crack cocaine are eligible for a sentencing reduction.
The justices seemed concerned that allowing those offenders to apply for reduced sentences would open the floodgates for other drug offenders to also seek shorter sentences.
Tarahrick Terry was caught with less than four grams of crack cocaine in Florida in 2008, which was enough of the narcotic to add a distributional intent element to his crime, ratcheting his sentence up to 15 years in prison.
U.S. Supreme Court skeptical of expanding crack cocaine reforms
By Lawrence Hurley
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday seemed skeptical that low-level crack cocaine offenders can benefit under a 2018 federal law that reduced certain prison sentences in part to address racial disparities detrimental to Black defendants.
The nine justices heard their final arguments of the court s nine-month term that began last October in a case involving a Florida man named Tarahrick Terry that tests the scope of the First Step Act signed into law by former President Donald Trump.
The provision in question made retroactive a 2010 law called the Fair Sentencing Act that reduced a disparity that made sentencing for crack cocaine crimes more severe than for powder cocaine crimes.