The recent hearing of the House of Representatives subcommittee on Appropriations on the needs of the Supreme Court was chaired by Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf and featured Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Notably, there seemed to be a division of labor between the two justices. Thomas apparently was sent there to testify about the administrative and technological needs of the high court, while Kennedy explained staffing needs and other issues. Well, they were talking about their respective issues when Wolf asked Kennedy about his pursuit of eliminating mandatory minimums. The passion with which Kennedy plowed into the subject, stating that the U.S. now incarcerates people at eight times more than any industrial country in the world and that 55 percent of those in the federal s...
The state Senate voted Thursday to roll back mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses in school zones, a victory for supporters seeking treatment rather than jail time for non-violent drug offenders. New Jersey has not loosened any mandatory minimum sentences in at least two decades, experts who studied the laws said.
Suggested criminal sentences easily beat required ones. The still- intact mandatory minimum sentences are too harsh. And more than just first-time drug traffickers should get the chance to reduce their time behind bars. That's what the federal judges who mete out the sentences say.
Although Maryland has made progress in its efforts to reduce drug- related incarceration, a report to be released Tuesday suggests there is still room for improvement to be gotten by reforming mandatory minimum sentences. A disproportionately high number of drug offenders incarcerated under mandatory minimum sentences in Maryland are black, the report from the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Policy Institute found. Further, offenders caught in this sentencing scheme are often low- level drug dealers rather than the drug kingpins mandatory minimums were meant to target, according to the document.
For the most part, President Obama has squandered his presidential pardon and commutation power. Federal mandatory minimum sentences have put small-time offenders behind bars for decades, yet Obama has been reluctant to commute sentences that far outstripped the crimes.
regarding the victims, what they go through." Rodriguez is not alone in his concern about mandatory minimum sentences for people who possess child pornography. A recent New York Times article noted a trend in federal judges speaking out against changes to federal sentencing laws that have increased recommended prison terms and established a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for anyone convicted of possessing child pornography. The article features Judge Jack B. Weinstein, who sits in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn and has "gone to extraordinary lengths to challenge the strict punishments, issuing a series of rulings that directly attack the mandatory five-year prison sentence faced by defendants charged with receiving child pornography. In 2007, the Connecticut legislature ...
Lower mandatory minimum prison sentences imposed by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 apply retroactively to defendants who committed their crimes before the Act became law, but who were sentenced afterwards, the 3rd has ruled. The defendant in the case pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute fifty grams or more of cocaine base and the receipt and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Two attorneys in the Baltimore office of Ballard Spahr have been elected partners. Amy M. McClain and Robert A. Scott will join the firm's partnership July 1. McClain is a member of the real estate department and housing group. She primarily represents public housing authorities and affordable-housing developers in mixed- finance transactions. Scott is a member of the litigation department whose practice emphasizes real estate, title insurance, and consumer finance litigation. State Senate Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs, a Republican who represents Cecil and Harford counties, has been named the Maryland Senate's Legislator of the Year by the Maryland State's Attorney's Association. Jacobs is known for sponsoring legislation that helped prosecutors better fight crime committed by gangs. Sh...
GUN CRIMES We need mandatory minimum sentences
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