Report on Senate crack hearing

I was busy with other matters and thus was not able to watch the Senate crack hearing via webcast.  But, as detailed in this AP report, it appears that the hearing had its moments:

Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected Attorney General Michael Mukasey's request to change new sentencing guidelines that would enable thousands of federal inmates to seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences....  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., accused Mukasey of falsely suggesting that the new policy would automatically set free 1,600 violent offenders "to prey on hapless communities."

"As the attorney general, himself a former federal judge, should have known ... no one can be released without a hearing before a federal judge who is obligated to evaluate each case and to consider factors such as the criminal history and violence," Leahy said in a statement.  "We can't let such scare tactics by the administration deter us from our goal of achieving fairness and legitimacy in the criminal justice system," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass....

Testifying for the Justice Department, Gretchen C.F. Shappert, a federal prosecutor for the Western District of North Carolina, told the Senate panel Tuesday that the new sentencing rules of retroactivity would be too burdensome on the federal court system.  Further, the flood would hit certain court districts disproportionately, she said.

Everyone's written testimony from the hearing now appears to be linked on this official website.  A quick scan of the testimony did not reveal anything especially new in this old debate, but perhaps readers see some hidden nuggets in the latest round of wacky crack talk.