Frederick County state's attorney supports ending federal cocaine sentencing disparity

Mary Grace Keller, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
·3 min read

Mar. 9—Frederick County State's Attorney Charlie Smith is among a group that represents thousands of prosecutors across the country supporting legislation that seeks to eliminate federal sentencing disparities for those who possess crack and powder cocaine.

Smith is treasurer of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), which recently announced its backing of the Eliminating Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act, put forth by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dick Durbin (D-IL). The act seeks to eliminate what the senators and NDAA see as unequal treatment of those facing sentences for crack versus powder cocaine at the federal level.

Smith said some would say the disparity began with the "war on drugs" in the 1970s, which continued through the year of President Ronald Reagan.

"I think that at the time it was probably perceived that crack was a bigger ill," Smith said.

After the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act passed, someone caught distributing five grams of crack cocaine served the same five-year prison sentence as someone distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine, a ratio of 100:1, a release from Booker's office states. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 brought that ratio down to 18:1, and now the goal is to eliminate the disparity entirely. If passed, the EQUAL Act would be applied retroactively to those already convicted or sentenced.

Smith said the federal disparity is "really harsh" and differs from Maryland's treatment of cocaine dealers. Before Gov. Larry Hogan's Justice Reinvestment Act of 2016, someone possessing 50 grams of crack cocaine in Maryland faced the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as a person with 448 grams of powder cocaine, Smith said. The change brought crack cocaine in line with powder for the purposes of sentencing.

The NDAA, according to Smith, almost never supports a retroactive application of law, but it does in this instance.

"We did this in Maryland, and they did not do it on the federal level," Smith said in an interview. "We thought that given the fact that so many states have changed this years ago that we were not opposed to a retroactive application."

Booker, Durbin and the NDAA in their statements acknowledged the disparity disproportionately affects communities of color.

"For over three decades, unjust, baseless and unscientific sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine have contributed to the explosion of mass incarceration in the United States and disproportionately impacted poor people, Black and Brown people, and people fighting mental illness," Booker said in a prepared statement. "At a time of expanding awareness of the realities of our unjust drug laws and growing consensus for changing them, I encourage my colleagues to support the EQUAL Act as a necessary step in repairing our broken criminal justice system."

Crack cocaine is a hard, rock-like substance. Smith said it's typically cheaper but hasn't been the most popular drug locally for many years.

"Now, crack's been trumped by heroin. For a couple of decades, it was definitely the hard narcotic of choice in Frederick," Smith said.

Smith said prosecutors want the law to be equitable across the board.

"We think it's very important to embark on sort of an information campaign to let people know that prosecutors are not just nail 'em and jail 'em," he said.

Follow Mary Grace Keller on Twitter:

@MaryGraceKeller