Local perspective on implementing crack retroactivity
My home-town Columbus Dispatch has this article on Ohio federal courts gearing up for implementing the now retroactive crack guidelines. Here are some excerpts:
At least 224 federal prisoners who were convicted here of crack-cocaine crimes could be released early, according to an estimate by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. A Dec. 11 decision that allows sentences to be reduced won’t take effect until March 3, but prisoners already are lining up to apply, officials said.
Phone lines have been ringing steadily with inquiries, said Steve Nolder, a federal public defender. And U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost said one inmate’s request for early release has been on his desk since Dec. 17.
Last spring, the commission eased the sentencing guidelines for crack-cocaine offenses. On Dec. 11, it voted to make the reduction retroactive so that those already convicted could be eligible for early release…. Local judges said the change was long overdue. “It should have never been a 100-to-1” disparity, Frost said. Decisions on how the changes will be instituted are forthcoming, but it appears an inmate must petition the court for early release, U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus said….
The federal court’s Southern District of Ohio, which includes Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, has slightly more than the national average of eligible cases. The Northern District, which includes Cleveland, Akron, Mansfield and Toledo, has 396 eligible cases — the 12th-highest among the federal court’s 94 districts.
I was intrigued by the article’s assertion, apparently paraphrasing Judge Sargus, that “decisions on how the changes will be instituted are forthcoming.” Forthcoming from whom? From the US Sentencing Commission? From district courts through rules? Are there folks at the Justice Department and in defender offices working on protocols for processing these motions for sentencing reductions in these crack cases? In short, this inquiring blogger wants to know who has started working on a game plan for implementing the retroactive crack guidelines.
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