Clinton OKs shift in cocaine penalties

New plan cuts disparities in sentencing for crack, powder

BY ANGIE CANNON
AND JODI ENDA
Mercury News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON President Clinton on Tuesday approved a plan aimed at
reducing the dramatic disparity in the amounts of crack and powder
cocaine it takes to draw a fiveyear federal sentence.

But some legal experts said the plan would have little impact because
the number of federal cocaine cases is relatively small. They called it
a political ploy to appease the black community, which has criticized
the harsher crack penalties because blacks are more likely than whites
to be arrested for smoking crack.

The plan, offered by Attorney General Janet Reno and Clinton's
drugpolicy adviser, Barry McCaffrey, would lower the difference in
sentencing for the two different forms of cocaine to a 101 ratio.

That means the mandatory fiveyear sentence for selling 25 grams of
crack also would apply to dealing 250 grams of powder cocaine. Current
law sets a fiveyear sentence for selling 5 grams of crack or 500
grams of cocaine, a 1001 ratio.

The recommendation, McCaffrey predicted, may reduce cocaine sales
without creating ``what, at first glance, looked like a tremendous
racial injustice, which was unintended, I think, when these guidelines
were put down.''

But some members of the black community said the proposal doesn't go far
enough and that the administration should eliminate the disparity
between the two forms of cocaine.

Rep. Maxine Waters, DLos Angeles, chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus, said: ``Crack cocaine is powder cocaine cooked. It's one and the
same. The law that exists now is just patently and blatantly unfair and
needs to be changed.''

Currently, possession or sale of 5 or more grams of crack carries a
mandatory fiveyear sentence, while possession of 500 or more grams of
powder cocaine carries that penalty.

Five grams of crack, which equals about onefifth of an ounce, is worth
a few hundred dollars; 500 grams of powder weigh just over a pound, and
is worth about $30,000.

Ten years in prison is the sentence for 50 grams of crack and 5,000
grams of powder.

Reno and McCaffrey sent Clinton a letter July 3 recommending that
getting caught with either 25 grams of crack or 250 grams of powder
cocaine would carry a fiveyear sentence. Their letter does not discuss
larger amounts of cocaine.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, a federal judicial agency, estimates
that the proposed changes would decrease the average sentence for all
crack offenders by about 25 percent and would increase the average
powder sentence by about 30 percent.

Last year, 1,034 people got fiveyear federal sentences for crack, while
1,426 people got that penalty for powder.

Those numbers are small compared with offenders sentenced under state
laws. States are free to set their own penalties.

The current law was passed by Congress in 1986. In 1995, the Sentencing
Commission recommended equalizing the penalties for the two kinds of
cocaine, partly because of the racialbias charge. But Congress and
Clinton rejected that.

In April, the commission recommended a change in the amount to a ratio
of 5to1: 25 to 75 grams of crack would carry a fiveyear penalty and
125 to 375 grams of powder would carry the same prison sentence.

Clinton's announcement Tuesday set off a debate between liberals who
don't think there should be any disparity and conservatives who don't
want to ease tough crack penalties.

White House adviser Rahm Emanuel said he was optimistic that Congress
will adopt the administration's plan. ``There is consensus that we need
to make a change,'' he said. ``There is not consensus about how to make
that change.''

Rep. Bill McCollum, RFla., chairman of the House panel that will
consider the sentencing recommendations, said he doubted Congress would
accept the president's proposal as it now stands. He said the emphasis
should be on toughening the powder cocaine penalties, not easing the
crack cocaine penalties.

McCollum flatly rejected criticism that the current system is racist.
``There's never been any evidence whatsoever that there was any racial
disparity or discrimination or racial intent in setting these
guidelines,'' he said. ``The mandatory sentences are the same for black
and white people.''

``More AfricanAmericans generally get caught up with crime and wind up
doing things that put them in jail for longer periods of time,''
McCollum said. ``But that doesn't have anything to do with
discrimination.''

But Angela Davis, an associate professor at American University's law
school and former executive director of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow
Coalition, disagreed.

``This is about politics and not about fairness,'' she said. ``I don't
think this change will be meaningful at all. I certainly hope it isn't
an indication of the changes the administration wants to make to ease
racial tensions.''

Milton Little, a senior vice president of the National Urban League,
said the administration's proposal was a good compromise between
inequitable sentences affecting minorities and the violent consequences
of crack use.

``They're moving toward a system of fairness and equity,'' he said. ``We
need to make sure that as much attention is being paid to highlevel
trafficking and . . . not have all the attention paid to lowlevel
street sales who are the easiest to catch.''

The Gannett News Service contributed to this report.

Published Wednesday, July 23, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News