Where sports, tragedy and the origins of bad federal sentencing law converge
FAMM’s president Julie Stewart is featured in the film “Without Bias,” which tells the now-legendary story of University of Maryland college basketball star Len Bias. In 1986, Bias was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Later that night, he died from a cocaine overdose while celebrating his success. His untimely death rocked the nation and led to the creation of the mandatory minimum drug sentences that are still on the books today. To learn more and see a preview of the film, visit ESPN’s website here.
The sentencing details of how Bias’s death impact federal sentencing legislation is captures in part in Chapter 6 of the US Sentencing Commission’s 1995 report to Congress on cocaine policy:
A few weeks after Bias’s death, on July 15, 1986, the United States Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on crack cocaine. During the debate, Len Bias’s case was cited 11 times in connection with crack. Eric Sterling, who for eight years served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and played a significant staff role in the development of many provisions of the Drug Abuse Act of 1986, testified before the United States Sentencing Commission in 1993 that the “crack cocaine overdose death of NCAA basketball star Len Bias” was instrumental in the development of the federal crack cocaine laws. During July 1986 alone, there were 74 evening news segments about crack cocaine, many fueled by the belief that Bias died of a crack overdose.
Not until a year later, during the trial of Brian Tribble who was accused of supplying Bias with the cocaine, did Terry Long, a University of Maryland basketball player who participated in the cocaine party that led to Bias’s death, testify that he, Bias, Tribble, and another player snorted powder cocaine over a four-hour period. Tribble’s testimony received limited coverage.