Grace said many blacks support the stiff crack-cocaine penalties, which he also said allows federal prosecutors to squeeze small-time dealers into providing the information necessary to prosecute larger traffickers. The crack-powder sentencing disparity is the most racially discriminatory provision in federal law and it has been on the books for 35 years. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, said far more blacks than whites are prosecuted in federal court for crack cocaine because the drug is plied primarily in America's inner-city neighborhoods, where black gangs dominate the drug trade. Sentencing Commission's recommendations to equalize the treatment of crack and powdered cocaine offenders would automatically become law if Congress did not pass-and the president does not sign by Wednesday-legislation specifically blocking the recommendations. ![]() "Federal sentencing data leads to the inescapable conclusion that blacks comprise the largest percentage of those affected by the penalties associated with crack cocaine," the sentencing commission wrote in its 1995 report recommending that the 100-to-1 disparity be eliminated and replaced by more flexible sentencing guidelines. During the same year, there were 139 whites, 106 blacks and 138 Hispanics convicted in federal court for powdered cocaine offenses, the commission found. In Illinois, there were 32 blacks-and no whites-convicted for crack cocaine in federal court in 1992. ![]() A 1992 survey by the same commission found that there were no whites convicted in federal court for crack cocaine in 16 states and many major American cities, including Chicago, Miami and Denver.
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