7-4 Drug Law

Goals Understand mandatory minimums and how they differ from normal sentencing Understand Federal Drug laws Discuss rationales behind the laws Focus on MN Drug laws and sentencing

You be the judge What sentence should Atiba receive? What key factors play into your decision? Amount of drugs sold Mental health problems Prior arrests Number of sales

Real life sentence MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES! Atiba Parker got 42 years! 20 years for selling .23 grams 14 years for selling .07 grams Possession of less than .1 grams of crack to show he was a habitual offender, adding 8 years to his sentence Sentence to run consecutively Why so high????? MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES!

Mandatory minimum A pre-determined sentence, created by Congress, which the court MUST give to the person convicted of a crime. Judges typically have discretion in sentencing, meaning they can consider aggravating and mitigating factors. Mandatory minimums take this away! Aggravating = especially bad Mitigating = Sympathetic List some Aggravating and Mitigating factors could be considered for Atiba?

History of mandatory minimums Especially common with drug laws, because the federal law requires very strict punishments for drug use. Congress created the current mandatory minimums for federal drug offenses in 1986 and 1988 as part of the so-called War on Drugs, or a policy that focused on stopping drug activity. Since the War on Drugs began, over 260,000 people have received mandatory minimums for feral drug offenses. CHART

Exception If the defendant meets all FIVE of the following criteria, the judge may sentence them below the mandatory minimum: No one was harmed during the offense The person has little to no history of criminal convictions The person did not use violence or a gun The person was not a leader or organizer of the offense AND The person told the prosecutor all that he knows about the offense.

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