These defendants were already sentenced under the new Guidelines.ī. Defendants in the following situations are ineligible for a sentence reduction:Ī. Not everyone convicted of a crack cocaine offense is eligible for a sentence reduction. After that, the Commission also decided, effective November 1, 2011, to make the reduction in the crack Guidelines retroactive. The reduced crack Guidelines went into effect on November 10, 2010. In 2010, that quantity was increased - it now takes 28 grams or more to trigger a five-year mandatory minimum.Īfter Congress acted, the Sentencing Commission reviewed the Guidelines for crack cocaine and decided to reduce them as well. For example, until this change, a case involving five or more grams of crack carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. In 2010, Congress made the crack statutes less severe by increasing the quantities of crack necessary to trigger the mandatory minimums. Retroactive means that the change to the Guideline can be applied in cases in which the defendant has already been sentenced. The government agency that writes the Sentencing Guidelines, which is called the United States Sentencing Commission, occasionally reviews the Guidelines, and has the ability to both lower any Guideline that it decides is too severe, and to make that change retroactive. This range usually falls somewhere between the minimum and maximum term set by Congress, and the Judge has to consider that recommendation, along with other information about the defendant and the offense, in deciding what sentence to impose. The second aspect of a crack cocaine sentence is the sentencing range recommended by the Sentencing Guidelines. Depending on the quantity of crack cocaine involved in the case and the defendant’s criminal record, there may be no mandatory minimum, a minimum of five years’ imprisonment, minimum of ten years’ imprisonment, a minimum of twenty years’ imprisonment or, in some very rare cases, a minimum of life imprisonment. Those laws fix two things: the maximum penalty, which is the highest sentence the Judge is permitted to give, and the minimum penalty, which is the lowest sentence that Judge is permitted to give. First are the drug laws themselves - the statutes enacted by Congress. The sentences for crack cocaine offenses, like those for all federal drug offenses, are governed by two sets of rules. The following information will explain who might be eligible for a sentence reduction and how the process works. Some people serving prison sentences for crack cocaine offenses may be eligible for a sentence reduction, due to retroactive changes to the Sentencing Guidelines for crack cocaine. Sentence Reductions in Crack Cocaine Cases
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