With the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 today by the House of Representatives, it is now headed to President Obama’s desk for certain signature within the next 10 days.
The Fair Sentencing Act will:
Replace the 100-to-1 ratio with an 18-to-1 ratio;
Raise the threshold for mandatory minimum sentences (28 grams would trigger a 5-year [...]
the Federal Sentencing Guidelines contain a 100:1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine. This legislation would:
1. reduce the current crack/powder disparity from 100:1 to 18:1;
2. eliminate a mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession (the threshold for a 5 year mandatory minimum would increase from 5 to 28 grams of crack; and
3. lower sentences of approximately 3,000 people each year and save the government an estimated $42 million in the first five years.
New York criminal defense lawyer Howard Weiner explains new guidelines which have been issued to all federal prosecutors in criminal cases. The guidelines come in the wake of the dismissal of several high profile cases, including the KPMG case, Ted Stevens, and the Blackwater prosecutions, all of which were based upon prosecutorial misconduct.
New Jersey drug defense attorney Howard Weiner discusses New Jersey’s new medical marijuana law, which will allow those living with chronic pain to legally obtain marijuana to alleviate their symptoms without fear of criminal prosecution.
As I discussed this weekend in The New York Times, in the wake of several highly publicized DWI fatalities in New York, the law is rapidly changing.
Administratively, the New York City Police Department and the City’s five District Attorneys have agreed to a new procedure to expedite the process of obtaining warrants for blood samples in [...]
A Report issued by that National Academies of Science found that evidence without proper scientific basis – also known as junk science — is routinely admitted in courts across the country in criminal prosecutions. With the exception of nuclear DNA analysis, the report found that the evidence to support the reliability of many techniques is [...]
The Department of Justice announced today that it will no longer seek to prosecute those who act in accordance with state law by using or distributing marijuana for medical purposes. The directive only affects those in the 14 states which currently have medical marijuana laws: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, [...]
On April 7, 2009, New York’s Legislature enacted historic revisions to the notoriously harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws. Many of the changes became effective immediately, applying to cases pending at the time the legislation was signed. As detailed in this 2009 Rockefeller Drug Law Reform Sentencing Chart, for most first time drug offenders, imprisonment is no [...]
Newly elected District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. has vowed to make the task force — which is expected to quickly become a model for the entire country due to the expansive scope being discussed — a top priority of his administration. As Senator Schneiderman noted, “This is the judiciary acknowledging that there are many people [...]
A lab chemist must be called to testify in order to admit a lab analysis as evidence at trial, the Supreme Court recently held in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 07-591 (June 22, 2009). This case effectively ends the government’s routine practice of entering into evidence one sided, conclusory reports prepared by government lab technicians for the sole [...]
