{"id":2108,"date":"2011-04-18T19:15:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=2108"},"modified":"2016-11-17T00:25:20","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T05:25:20","slug":"judges-say-new-sentencing-law-still-doesnt-stop-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/judges-say-new-sentencing-law-still-doesnt-stop-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges Say New Sentencing Law Still Doesn&#039;t Stop Injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many federal judges are criticizing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, aimed at narrowing the gap between sentences for convictions involving crack and powder cocaine, for being less than fair.\u00a0 Under the presumption that laws do apply retroactively without a clear statement from Congress, the law appears to only reduce mandatory sentences for those defendants  who are charged with crack offenses committed after August of last year.\u00a0 Many federal trial judges have given out shorter sentences to those defendants convicted of crimes committed before August anyway, citing the injustice of continuing to dole out punishments deemed too harsh by Congress.\u00a0 But it&#8217;s unclear whether this will continue, as the only appeals court to consider the question so far has said that without a clear statement from Congress, the law cannot apply retroactively.\u00a0 It looks like the Supreme Court might have to be the last word on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>From the New York Times article: &#8220;In his recent decision,  Judge Michael A. Ponsor of Federal District Court in Springfield,  Mass., said that could not be right. It is one thing, he wrote, to have  to impose an unjust sentence. But it is asking too much of judges, he  went on, to require them to continue to sentence defendants under a  racially skewed system &#8216;when the injustice has been identified and  formally remedied by Congress itself.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/19\/us\/19bar.html?hp#\" target=\"_blank\">Read the full New York Times article.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many federal judges are criticizing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, aimed at narrowing the gap between sentences for convictions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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