 Today's
drug enforcement laws are swamping the judicial system.
In many courts, the right to trial by jury in civil cases
has all but disappeared. In far too many federal courts, the
right to a trial presided over by a constitutional officer has
vanished. People who can't wait 10 or more years to have a civil
dispute decided are forced to "rent" a retired judge
or pay a lawyer to arbitrate. Even' in systems that have not
reached gridlock, drug-congested dockets have diverted judicial
time and attention from the thoughtful resolution of disputes
to the ritualized procession of charge, plea and computerized
sentences to crowed prisons.
For years now, many Federal Judges have taken a stand against
mandatory minimum sentences. Over 86% call for outright abolition
of mandatory sentencing. Some Senior Federal Judges have refused
to hear drug cases because of the long sentences they are bound
by law to give defendants. Many Federal Judges are recording
their dissent and we are collecting them here.
"Only when a judge makes a departure from the guideline
sentencing will a public record for statistical purpose be created
for proper analysis of judicial dissent. What happens when a
federal magistrate 'dissents' is akin to no purpose to the defendant.
They largely occur at a very human moment, when the judge and
defendant are eye to eye at sentencing. One man is about to crush
another human person's life with a term of imprisonment. Most
people don't realize that there's no one really keeping track
of how many times a judge says, "I'm really sorry I have
to sentence you to thirty years. I don't have any choice young
man." Or when they say, "Maam, I know that you will
die in prison because of the sentence I'm going to impose, and
that seems rather extreme for a first time nonviolent drug offense."
-- Federal Sentencing Study, Professor
David Zlotnick, Roger Williams University School of Law
The entire issue is throughly explained by Professor Zlotnick
in his Federal Sentencing Study. Compelling are his revelations
that show judicial dissent occurs largely with Republican-appointed
judiciary. But, at the same time, their dissenting opinions are
of little use to defendants, so calling it 'activist' or 'liberal'
is worrisome because federal judges don't act like activists,
nor have they been liberal -- for quite some time.
7th Circuit Chief Judge Calls
for Loosening of Sentencing Guidelines; from National
Law Review (US), 9/14/09
Two Judges Target
Cocaine Penalties; from Washington Post (DC), 6/29/09
OpEd: Retired Judge Says It Is Time
To End War On Marijuana; from Bellingham Herald
(WA), 3/21/09
Judge Quest To Decriminalize
Minor Drug Use Gets Support; from Houston Chronicle
(TX), 1/15/09
What Might 2009 Have In Store For Punishment
Theory And Incarceration Rates? From The Sentencing
Law & Policy Blog of Doug Berman, Esq., 1/2/09
Judges, Lawyers Question Fairness
Of Mandatory Sentences; from Winona Daily News
(MN), 7/27/08
Judges See Failure In Fate Of Drug
Cases; from Baltimore Sun (MD), 3/5/08
Judge Argues For Softer Drug Laws;
from Central Florida Future (FL Edu), 12/3/07
OpEd: It's A Gray Area: Current Drug
Policies Inefficient, by Judge James Gray; from Daily
Pilot (CA), 10/1/07
Commentary: Jailing Juvenile Offenders
with Adults Only Helps Create Smarter, More Violent Criminals;
from BlackAmericaWeb.com (US), 5/25/07
Column: In The Costly War On Drugs,
Who's To Say What Is Right? from St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(MO), 1/14/07
Judge Calls For Easing Of Drug
Penalty; from Houston Chronicle (TX), 11/20/06
Judge: Cocaine Sentencing Disparity
'Unconscionable'; from Associated Press (US)
Report: Why Are Federal Judges So Acquittal Prone?
from Law
Quarterly, Washington University School of Law (MO)(PDF
Format)
Archive: Supreme Court
Rules 5-4 That Only Juries Can Enhance Sentences: Sixth
Amendment Sentencing Issues [Apprendi, Summerlin]
Revisited - June 25, 2004; Blakely v. Washington,
No. 02-1632
Judge Criticizes Ex-Officer's 315-Year
Sentence; from Baltimore Sun (MD), 6/17/06
Federal Judge Raps Rules On Sentencing;
from Charlotte Observer (NC), 5/29/06
Federal Judge Blasts Mandatory Minimum
Sentences; from New York Law Journal (NY), 1/20/26
Judge Rails Against Drug Sentencing;
from Providence Journal (RI), 11/20/05
Drug Sentences Under Scrutiny;
N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley B. Mitchell Jr., from
News & Observer (NC), 11/15/05
'War On Drugs' Not Meant To Be
Won; CT Superior Court Judge Howard Scheinblum, from
The Norwich Bulletin (CT), 6/4/05
Commentary: Our Absurd Drug War And
The Judge Who Just Said No; from The Orange County Register
(CA), 2/25/05
Sentencing and Sensibility, By Myron
H. Thompson, Federal Judge; from The New York Times, 1/21/05
OPED: Policy Of Prohibition A Failure,
by Judge J.B. Paradis, provincial court of British Columbia;
from The North Shore News (CN BC), 11/24/04
Op-Ed: Rehab Justice; from The New
York Times, 11/18/04
Judge Questions Long Sentence in Drug
Case; from The New York Times, 11/17/04
Congress Should Reconsider Federal Sentencing
Guidelines; from The Sioux City Journal (IA), 9/12/04
Utah Judge Rejects U.S. Sentencing
Rules; from The Associated Press, 7/1/04
Judge Censures Federal Sentencing Guidelines;
from The Associated Press, 6/22/04
Judge Pro Tem Kicked Off Bench; from
The Arizona Tribune, 6/14/04
Treatment Benefits Everyone; By James
T. Smith Jr., Former Circuit Court Judge
Our Surrender In War On Drugs; By Mark
S. Coven, First Justice of the Quincy District Court
Judge Eleanor Schockett: Out On The
Streets; from The Listener (New Zealand)
Prosecutors Are Seeking Removal Of
Judge From Cases; from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Judge Wolf Raps Focus on Guns, Drugs in
US Docket; from The Boston Globe (MA)
More Judges Leaving Bench for Better
Pay; from The Associated Press
Judge Tapes Sentencing in Wake of
New Law; from Associated Press
Western Federal Judges Rip New Law
Limiting Sentencing Discretion; from Associated Press
Too Little Second Chances for Prisoners;
By Nancy Gertner, US District Court Judge
New York's Federal Judges Protest
Sentencing Procedures; from The New York Times
The ABA Justice Kennedy Commission Hearings;
from the American Bar Association
Triumph for Drug
Policy Alliance and All Drug Policy Reform Advocates: Supreme
Court Declines to Hear Government on Medical Marijuana
Judicial Conference Seeks Restoration
of Judges' Sentencing Authority; from the US Courts
Judges In A Stew On Federal Sentences
- Guidelines Seen As Too Rigid, Unfair
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer:
Mandatory Sentences `Bad Policy'
Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy:
End Minimum Sentences
U.S. Chief District Judge Graham Mullen,
Chief Federal Judge, Western District of North Carolina
Federal Judge of the 8th Circuit, Myron
Bright (Concurring Opinion)
Judge Carl Horn III - Chief U.S. Magistrate
Judge, Western District of North Carolina
Judge John S. Martin Jr. - Federal District
Judge, Manhattan, NY
Judge Kane Lambasts Federal Drug War
(again)
Judge Robert W. Pratt - U.S. Southern
District of Iowa
Chief Judge Juan R. Torruella, U.S.
Court of Appeals, First Circuit
Judge Volney V. Brown Jr. Former US Magistrate,
Los Angeles (1982 to 1995)
Judge Nancy Gertner, U.S. District
Court, Boston
U.S. Senior District Judge of Denver Judge
John L. Kane Jr.
Judge James Gray, Superior Court, Santa
Ana, CA
Federal Judge of the 8th Circuit, Myron
Bright
Federal Judge of the 8th Circuit, Donald
P. Lay
Federal Judge of the D.C. Circuit,
Harry T. Edwards
Federal Judge of the D.C. Circuit,
Stanley Sporkin
Federal Judge of Illinois, Central District,
Harold A. Baker
Federal Judge of New York, Southern
District, Morris E. Lasker
Federal Judge Whitman Knapp, Southern
District of New York
Judge Frances Howard, B.C., Canada
Professor of Law Jeffrey M. Blum (responding
to request from Judge John Elfin, Western District of NY)
Federal Judge Harold Greene, of Washington,
ruled that important elements of the mandatory sentencing laws
for drug offenders were unconstitutional.
Highlights of dissenting opinions judges
have shared publicly:
"Reaching back still further, the current dominant opinion
supporting the war on drugs in general, and our anti marijuana
laws in particular, is reminiscent of the opinion that supported
the nationwide ban on alcohol consumption when I was a student.
While alcoholic beverages are now regarded as ordinary articles
of commerce, their use was then condemned with the same moral
fervor that now supports the war on drugs. The ensuing change
in public opinion occurred much more slowly than the relatively
rapid shift in Americans' views on the Vietnam War, and progressed
on a state-by-state basis over a period of many years. But just
as prohibition in the 1920's and early 1930's was secretly questioned
by thousands of otherwise law-abiding patrons of bootleggers
and speakeasies, today the actions of literally millions of otherwise
law-abiding users of marijuana, n9 and of the majority of voters
in each of the several States that tolerate medicinal uses of
the product, lead me to wonder whether the fear of disapproval
by those in the majority is silencing opponents of the war on
drugs. Surely our national experience with alcohol should make
us wary of dampening speech suggesting -- however inarticulately
-- that it would be better to tax and regulate marijuana than
to persevere in a futile effort to ban its use entirely."
-- Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting
in Morse v. Frederick, No. 06-278, June 25, 2007
Federal Judge Richard Neville, of Chicago; March 1996
told USA Today, "the markup on illegal drugs and
their enormous profits to sellers create ten replacements for
every offender thrown in prison. No matter how may we put in
jail, that isn't going to change."
U.S. Magistrate Peter Nimkoff of Miami resigned from the bench do to the relentless
erosion of rights and the governmental abuses which he daily
confronted. In a press conference in 1986 he said, "There
are two constitutions - one for criminal cases generally and
another for drug cases," which, "invites police officers
to behave like criminals. And they do." The Miami Herald
did not cover this resignation or the press conference.
Federal Judge Richard Posner
told USA Today, "It is nonsense that we should be devoting
so many law-enforcement resources to marijuana. I am skeptical
of a society that is so tolerant of alcohol and cigarettes should
come down so hard on marijuana use and send people to prison
for life without parole... Prison terms in America have become
appallingly long, especially for conduct that, arguable, should
not be criminal at all . . . Only decriminalization is a sure
route to a lower crime rate . . ."
Federal Judge George Pratt of the 2nd Circuit said of police searches
in the Buffalo, N.Y. airport, "It appears that they have
sacrificed the Fourth Amendment by detaining 590 innocent people
in order to arrest 10 who are not - all in the name of the 'war
on drugs.' When, pray tell, will it end? Where are we going?"
(To Reason Magazine, February 1994)
Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin defied the federal mandatory sentence by giving
a drug offender a 13 month sentence, instead of the mandated
10 or more years.
Judge Robert W. Sweet District
Judge in New York City; served as an Assistant US Attorney and
as Deputy Mayor of New York City under John Lindsay; a graduate
of Yale and of Yale Law School. "Congress should end the
criminalization of marijuana, which is now widely acknowledged
to be without deleterious effect. That reform alone would take
450,000 arrests out of the system."
US District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco contends that decriminalization
is the key to solving our nation's current drug problem.
Federal Judge Jack Weinstein of Brooklyn has
refused to take drug cases because he opposes mandatory minimum
sentences. He said that he had a, "sense of depression about
much of the cruelty I have been party to in connection with the
war on drugs."
US District Judge Thomas Wiseman, quoted in The
Tennessean, "We've just about lost a generation of young
people. We're building new prison beds at the rate of about 1000
a week and we're still overcrowded... We've spent $100 billion
on the war on drugs and we're losing it."
If you have a dissenting opinion of a Federal Judge, please
mail a copy to:
November Coalition
282 West Astor
Colville, WA 99114
(509) 684-1550
moreinfo@november.org
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