{"id":11830,"date":"2010-10-12T11:42:42","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T16:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=11830"},"modified":"2010-10-12T11:42:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T16:42:42","slug":"scotus-to-rule-on-meaning-of-%e2%80%9ccocaine-base%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/10\/scotus-to-rule-on-meaning-of-%e2%80%9ccocaine-base%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS to Rule on Meaning of \u201cCocaine Base\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In a 1986 law that must surely rate as one of Congress\u2019s most ill-informed overreactions to a high-profile tragedy\u2013 the cocaine-related death of college basketball star Len Bias \u2014 a new mandatory minimum ten-year\u00a0sentence was created for drug offenders involved in dealing 50 or more grams of \u201ccocaine base.\u201d\u00a0 Never mind that Bias used the powder form of cocaine.\u00a0 Never mind that crack \u2014 the form of cocaine that everyone was\u00a0most concerned about at the time \u2014 is only one type of cocaine base.\u00a0 Congress instead chose to direct the harsh new penalties at cocaine base, a category that is narrower than all cocaine, but broader than just crack (at least if the term\u00a0\u201dcocaine base\u201d is understood\u00a0literally).\u00a0 As is now well known, the result of this unfortunate law has been to create massive racial disparities in federal drug sentencing between white defendants (who are typically involved with powder) and black defendants (who are more\u00a0typically involved with crack).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although \u201ccocaine base\u201d cases normally involve what is undisputably\u00a0crack, defendants have from time to time litigated whether a particular susbtance really triggers the ten-year minimum.\u00a0 These cases have produced a longstanding circuit split, with six circuits (the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Tenth) reading \u201ccocaine base\u201d to encompass all forms cocaine that are chemically classified as a base, and five circuits holding that \u201ccocaine base\u201d means more narrowly what Congress was really concerned about, i.e., crack and other types of smokable cocaine base.\u00a0 With today\u2019s cert. grant in DePierre v. United States<\/em>, 599 U.S. 25 (1st Cir. 2010), the Supreme Court appears poised finally to resolve the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The facts of DePierre <\/em>nicely illustrate\u00a0the pernicious effects of the artificial distinction created by the 1986 law.\u00a0 A government informant purchased powder cocaine from DePierre in February 2005.\u00a0 Federal agents could have arrested DePierre at that time, but decided instead to invite a crack deal with the deliberate purpose of increasing\u00a0the sentence.\u00a0 Cocaine is easily cooked into crack,\u00a0so the informant\u2019s request to receive his next delivery of\u00a0cocaine in crack form\u00a0presented no large difficulty for DePierre, who eventually sold the informant 55.1 grams of what the government alleged was crack \u2014 just a little more than necessary to trigger the ten-year minimum.\u00a0 Whether or not these facts satisfy the demanding legal requirements for the entrapment defense \u2014 DePierre\u2019s jury decided not, and the question is not\u00a0now before the Supreme Court\u00a0\u2013 the government\u2019s conduct was at the least unseemly.\u00a0 Yet, given the enormous consequences the law attaches to an arbitrary distinction, it is easy to see the temptation for the government to induce crack deals.<\/p>\n

Although we ought to welcome any narrowing of the\u00a0\u201dcocaine base\u201d\u00a0law, even if the Court does rule on the side of the defendant in DePierre,<\/em> we will still have a basically arbitrary distinction in place.\u00a0 (For an illustration of the difficulties created by using \u201ccrack\u201d as the key term, see my earlier post here<\/a>.)\u00a0 More promising is the recently enacted Fair Sentencing Act of 2010<\/a>, which raised the triggering quantity for the ten-year minimum to 280 grams.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see if and how\u00a0the new law affects law-enforcement practices.\u00a0 For instance, would the agents pursuing DePierre have engineered several additional crack deals in order to reach the 280-gram threshhold?<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Life Sentences<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a 1986 law that must surely rate as one of Congress\u2019s most ill-informed overreactions to a high-profile tragedy\u2013 the cocaine-related death of college basketball star Len Bias \u2014 a new mandatory minimum ten-year\u00a0sentence was created for drug offenders involved in dealing 50 or more grams of \u201ccocaine base.\u201d\u00a0 Never mind that Bias used the 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