Testimony to the U.S. Sentencing Commission
on retroactivity of crack guideline
by Julie Stewart,
President of FAMM Foundation
November 13, 2007
Good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you for allowing me to testify today on behalf of the 13,000 members of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM). Many of our members have loved ones serving sentences for crack cocaine offenses and they passionately urge you to make the crack guideline change retroactive.
But first, let me thank you for sending the crack guideline forward on May 1st. I have participated in and observed efforts to reform crack sentences for nearly 15 years, none of which until now have been successful. So it is with respect and a little awe that I thank you for accomplishing this feat. While each of you said last spring that the guideline was a “modest” step forward, it is still a critical one that broke the legislative log-jam around crack reform, as is evidenced by the three Senate bills to reform the mandatory minimum for crack offenses.
Now you have the opportunity to turn that “modest” step forward into a truly significant one. There is no legitimate argument against making the crack guideline change retroactive – in fact, there is a moral imperative to do so. As a former Chief Judge for one of the U. S. Courts of Appeals told me, “What’s right, is right.” I don’t doubt that each of you share that sentiment. If a sentence is sufficient to serve the purposes of punishment for defendants in the future, it is sufficient for those who were sentenced under unjust rules in the past. Clearly, justice should not turn on the date an individual is sentenced.
I know that of greater concern to you is how to apply the guideline retroactively, the mechanics of the process, which has been ably addressed by other witnesses on the morning panels. I know that it can be done because I witnessed it in 1993 and 1995 when LSD and marijuana guideline changes were made retroactive. The commissioners who made those decisions were also under pressure not to appear soft on crime. But they made the tough but fair decision to remedy injustice, which you can as well. Doing so will underscore that justice is colorblind: LSD and marijuana retroactivity primarily affected white defendants, while crack guideline retroactivity would largely impact African American prisoners.
The Commission has determined that about19,500 prisoners would potentially be affected by retroactivity of the crack amendment. It is easy to forget that each one of these prisoners is a human being, a person who for complicated economic, social, psychological, or personal reasons broke the law and ended up in prison. It is easy to paint them as “major crack dealers with long criminal records,” as some members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees have done. What these Members of Congress ignore is that even if the Commission makes the crack guideline retroactive, eligible prisoners will still serve a very long time in prison. These people deserve to be punished, but they don’t deserve to be punished excessively or gratuitously.
Sentences have become so inflated in the past two decades that a 10-year sentence for a nonviolent offender no longer sounds harsh. But 10 years is an extraordinarily long time to be locked away from society. It is 10 years of missed Thanksgiving dinners with family, missed birthday celebrations (their own and that of their children and friends), missed marriages and childbirths and even missed funerals. My father died while my brother was in prison and there is no way for Jeff to recapture that lost time with our Dad.
There are people in this room today who know all too well what I am talking about. Some of them have traveled a great distance to be here today – from Kansas, Florida, Georgia, Texas – because they are fighting for their loved ones lives. They’re here because they want to understand how your decision will be made, and see the seven people who will decide whether their loved ones will receive a “modest” reduction in their crack sentences. I would like to ask them to stand so I may quickly introduce them to you…
I close by simply saying that in your hands is the power to positively affect not only the lives of nearly 20,000 individuals in prison, but that of the thousands more – mothers, fathers, daughters and sons – who wait for them to return home. I know you will consider this enormous responsibility – and opportunity – with care and deliberation, and I thank you for it.
For more information, contact:
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)
1612 K St. N.W., Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: (202) 822-6700
Email: famm@famm.org
www.famm.org