US Supreme Court confronts sentencing controversy

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court Tuesday grappled with federal sentencing rules that are accused of throwing a disproportionate number of blacks behind bars for drug crimes.

The top court deliberated over two cases in which appeals courts threw out sentences given by judges that were lighter than suggested by the federal guidelines.

The first case concerned the politically explosive matter of sentences for crack cocaine -- seen typically as a blight of urban black ghettos -- and powder cocaine, which is said to be taken by more affluent whites.

A 1986 law imposed a ratio of 100 to one, so that being caught with just five grams of crack cocaine carries the same punishment of five years in jail as dealing in 500 grams of the less addictive powdered...