Wednesday, August 4, 2010

August 4, 2010

Paul,

Here is an article I found.....

Obama signs Fair Sentencing Act
By Scott Wilson
The Washington Post

President Obama signed into law Tuesday the Fair Sentencing Act, which narrows the huge disparity in punishment given to those convicted of possessing crack cocaine versus those found with the drug in powder form.

The gap has been of particular concern to the African-American community. Crack users tend to be poorer than those who use powder - and disproportionately African-American.

Under the old law, someone convicted of possessing five grams of crack cocaine received a mandatory five years in prison. Those convicted of possessing powder cocaine had to be holding 100 times that amount to get the same mandatory sentence.

The new law, passed through rare bipartisan compromise, narrows that 100 to 1 ratio to 18 to 1. Obama campaigned on a platform that included closing the sentencing gap, but some legal activists are calling for it to be narrowed even further.

Obama signed the bill in the Oval Office with a bipartisan selection of lawmakers on hand, as well as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.. He did not make any remarks.

But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters later that "the signing of today's bill into law represents the hard work of Democrats and Republicans."

"This is a good example of coming together and making progress on something that people had identified as a glaring blight on the law," Gibbs said.

"If you look at the people that were there at that signing, they are not of the political persuasions that either always or even part of the time agree," he continued. "I think that demonstrates the glaring nature of what these penalties had done to people and how unfair they were. And I think the president was proud to sign that into law."

By Scott Wilson | August 3, 2010; 3:43 PM ET


I am glad you are doing well. I look forward to the letter about your mom.

Much Love and Friendship,

.....


thank u for that info. now the concern of many of us is that the law is not retroactive. but it may soon be. inmate law professionals say it may be retro in as few as 90 days. i need the years back. i was indicted for conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more. with every five grams= 5 yrs. and the federal prosecutor made it clear that his offer of 151months was a real deal, that was half of the 25yrs divided by 5grams that i could have recieved. now you see why the law is called "the fair sentencing act", there is nothing fair about the way they are locking up american citizens. obama has said that he wants the ratio 1 to 1. so thank you very much. and hope that they will get really fair and make this retroactive so that it benefits those that have already been sentenced under the old un-fair act.



still working on "mother" will send soon.

much love and friendship

paul

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