United States v. Blewitt, No. 12-5582 (6th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseIn 2005 the Blewetts were convicted of crack cocaine offenses and sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 10 years each under the 100-to-1 crack cocaine law, based on the quantity of crack cocaine possessed. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 as implemented by new sentencing guidelines, has substantially reduced crack cocaine sentences, including the mandatory minimum sentences, 21 U.S.C. 841(b). If the Blewetts were sentenced today, they would not be subject to a statutory minimum because the quantity of crack involved falls below the threshold for any statutory minimum. The district court denied retroactive resentencing under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2)2 and 28 U.S.C. 994(u)3. The Sixth Circuit reversed, noting that the old 100-to-1 crack cocaine ratio has led to the mass incarceration of thousands of nonviolent prisoners under a law widely acknowledged as racially discriminatory; thousands of inmates, most black, languish in prison under the old, discredited ratio because the Fair Sentencing Act was not made explicitly retroactive by Congress. Judicial perpetuation of the discriminatory mandatory minimum crack sentences for those defendants sentenced under the old crack sentencing law would violate the Equal Protection Clause.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on December 3, 2013.
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