Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/analysis-of-justices-revised-crack-sentencing-guidelines Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A report on the Supreme Court's two recent rulings revising sentencing guidelines, then an analysis of the decisions by Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Those sentencing decisions at the Supreme Court. NewsHour regular Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal is here to take us through it.Marcia, welcome. MARCIA COYLE, National Law Journal: Hi, Jim, thank you. JIM LEHRER: All right, there were actually two decisions on this. Give us a quick run-through of what the cases were about. MARCIA COYLE: OK, two separate 7-2 decisions: first, holding judges may consider the harshness of the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine offenders in imposing a sentence; and, second, judges who significantly depart from a recommended sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines do not have to justify that by extraordinary circumstances. They just have to have an adequate explanation that's reasonable. JIM LEHRER: All right, so let's go back to the 100-to-1 disparity. What was that all about? MARCIA COYLE: All right, this case involved Derrick Kimbrough, who pled guilty to trafficking in crack cocaine. The sentencing judge considered, among other factors, the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity which treats crack cocaine offenders more harshly than powder cocaine. JIM LEHRER: What is that? What exactly is that? MARCIA COYLE: All right, crack cocaine is an inexpensive form of powdered cocaine. And it's smoked. Powdered cocaine is generally inhaled. Crack cocaine is more popular in our urban areas and among the poor. Powder cocaine is generally white, middle, upper-class users. JIM LEHRER: And so the law said the 100-to-1, they put that in the law to make it harsher, right? In other words… MARCIA COYLE: The origins of the disparity date back to 1986 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act that Congress enacted. Congress at the time and others felt and believed that crack cocaine was significantly more dangerous than powder cocaine, that it lead to more violent crimes, more crime in general.So Congress treated one gram of crack as equal to 100 grams of powder cocaine. So if you had five grams of crack, you were sentenced to a minimum prison term of five years, but it would take 500 grams of powdered cocaine to get the same sentence.