The judge must choose a sentence from within the guideline range unless the court identifies an aggravating or mitigating circumstance that was not adequately considered by the Sentencing Commission. In mandatory minimum drug cases, judges can depart only upon motion from the government stating that a defendant has provided substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person.
All guideline drug sentences are indirectly affected by the mandatory minimums. The base offense levels are set at guideline ranges slightly higher than the mandatory minimum levels to permit some downward adjustment for defendants who plead guilty or otherwise cooperate with authorities. Most of the specific offense characteristics and general adjustments increase the sentence length, as do all of the adjustments for criminal history. The result is that most drug defendants in federal court receive guideline sentences higher than the applicable statutory mandatory minimum penalty. In 79% of the 1993 crack cases and 71% of the powder cases, the minimum of the guideline range was higher than the applicable statutory mandatory minimum.
An exception to the mandatory minimum drug penalties was created by Congress in 1994 for certain first-time, non-violent, low-level drug offenders.
This exception allows qualified defendants to receive the full benefit of any mitigating guideline adjustments that they would otherwise be precluded from due to the mandatory minimum penalties. Only defendants whose guideline sentence is lower than the mandatory minimum level or who qualify for a downward departure actually benefit from the provision. In the first two months of its implementation, 27 powder cocaine and 13 crack defendants benefited from the provision. This provision became effective September 23, 1994.
As of February 3, 1995, the Sentencing Commission had received and entered into its database 96 cases in which the provision had clearly been applied.
Demographic Profile of Federal Cocaine Offenders
The demographic profile of cocaine offenders must be further examined to analyze any disparity in sentencing. Among crack cocaine cases, only 8.1% were non-U.S. citizens. This contrasts with the higher proportion of aliens for other drugs (powder cocaine 29.7%, heroin 63.0%, marijuana 31.8%, and methamphetamine 9.9%). Within a drug organization, alien status may be associated with the role of mule or courier and the crossing of a U.S. border. Furthermore, most federal drug defendants are male (89.2% of traffickers, 81.4% of possessors), regardless of the type of drug involved.
However, research indicates that crack cocaine trafficking defendants are generally younger, with nearly half (46.9%) less than 26 years old. Crack cocaine defendants are the only drug group with an average age less than 30 years. Approximately half (47.9%) of all drug defendants have not graduated from high school. The percentage of defendants not completing high school is highest among marijuana defendants (53.0%). Crack cocaine trafficking defendants have the lowest rates of college attendance or graduation.
Race is also an important factor that warrants close examination. In 1993, Whites account for 30.8% of all convicted federal drug offenders, Blacks 33.9%, and Hispanics 33.8%. Sentencing patterns for some drugs show high concentrations of a particular racial or ethnic group. Most strikingly, crack cocaine offenders are 88.3% Black. Conversely, methamphetamine offenders are 84.2% White. Powder cocaine cases involve sizable proportions of Whites (32.0%), Blacks (27.4%), and Hispanics (39.3%).
Among defendants convicted of simple possession, 58% of powder defendants were White, 26.7% were Black, and 15% were Hispanic. Among crack defendants, 10.3% were White, 84.5% were Black, and 5.2% were Hispanic.
Findings in a recent Bureau of Justice Statistics study, conducted by Douglas McDonald and Kenneth Carlson, suggest that between 1986 and 1990 both the rate and the average length of imprisonment for federal offenders increased for Blacks in comparison to Whites. The researchers concluded that this increase, based on legally relevant offense characteristics, was caused largely by the mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses and more specifically by the 100-to-1 quantity ratio of powder cocaine to crack cocaine.
Operational Assumptions
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