Another court exressly embraces 1-to-1 sentencing ratio for all crack sentencings

While Congress is in the midst of considering how to adjust the mandatory minimum statutory sentencing terms for crack offenses (background here and here), another federal district judge earlier this week formally explained in US v. Greer, No. 6:09-CR (E.D. Tex. Mar. 30, 2010) (available here), that he "will use a 1-to-1 ratio for this and all future crack cocaine cases, and mitigating and aggravating factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) affecting sentencing will be separately considered on a case-by-case basis."

I learned of this Greer ruling thanks to this posting via the Dallas Morning News, which also reported on additional federal judges who have adopted this approach in other parts of Texas:

While Congress works on legislation to correct the historic inequity in federal crack cocaine sentencing -- a person convicted of crack cocaine possession gets the same mandatory jail time as someone with 100 times the same quantity of powder cocaine -- federal judges have begun to mete out their own fairer sentences.

Locally, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade in Dallas and U.S. District Judge Terry Means in Fort Worth have sentenced crack defendants on a 1 to 1 ratio, said Richard Anderson, head of the federal public defender's office for the Northern District of Texas. U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn has "reached the equivalent result through use of a variance, but I don't believe she stated the ratio on the record," he said.

This past Tuesday, on March 30, U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis in Tyler became the first judge in the neighboring Eastern District of Texas to issue such a sentence, according to an alert sent out by Kenneth Hawk, with the federal defender's office in Tyler.

Some related posts:

• Thoughtful new district court opinion adopting 1:1 crack/powder ratio
• Another district judge adopts 1-to-1 crack/powder sentencing plan
• Noting the latest state of the crack-powder sentencing debate
• With the new DOJ advocating completely eliminating crack/powder disparity, now what?
• DOJ's basic game-plan while urging crack sentencing reform from Congress
• Unanimous(!!) vote by Senate Judiciary Committee to reduce (but not eliminate) crack/powder disparity
• Varied reactions to the crack/powder reform work of the Senate Judiciary Committee
• Full Senate passes bill to reduce (but not eliminate) crack/powder disparity
• Will and should House adopt the crack/powder reform compromise passed by Senate?
• Questions about the "when" and "now what" for crack/powder sentencing reform