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President Obama Signs Bill Reducing Cocaine Sentencing Disparity; Hamedah Falls Through the Cracks

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> THE PERSON
the story behind the sentence

> THE ISSUE
the unjust crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity

> THE PRESIDENT
the power of forgiveness

Hamedah's Story

Hamedah Hasan with daughters Kamyra (left), Kasaundra (center) and Ayesha (right).

Hamedah with daughters Kamyra (left), Kasaundra (center) and Ayesha (right).

IN HER OWN WORDS...

LEGAL BACKGROUND...

SUPPORT FOR HAMEDAH...

"The evidence now demonstrates that in excess of ninety per cent (90%) of the persons prosecuted for distribution or possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine or cocaine base are African-American. At the same time, the evidence is clear that the cocaine molecule is the same whether the drug being used is powder form or in crack form, and is not inherently more dangerous in crack form."

Although Judge Kopf, who sentenced Hamedah, was prevented from helping her, history has vindicated his analysis of the crack-powder disparity. These were his words:

The 1:100 ratio between crack and powder reflected in the mandatory minimum sentences enacted by Congress have been a factor in driving the sentencing commission in developing the guidelines. This has resulted in sentences for crack cocaine being inordinately more severe than sentences for similar amounts of powder cocaine, and this disparity has been aggravated by the guidelines adopted in November of 1989 and subsequently. A by-product of this inordinate disparity is that members of the African American race are being treated unfairly in receiving substantially longer sentences than caucasian males who traditionally deal in powder cocaine, and this disparity simply is not justified by the evidence. . . .

The effect of this has been that a segment of minority members of our society are simply not being treated appropriately for the criminal conduct of which they have been found guilty.

The Supreme Court has since acknowledged that the crack-power disparity as reflected in the Sentencing Guidelines under which Hamedah was sentenced was not based on "empirical data and national experience" but merely tracked the now-discredited 100:1 formula that Congress had enacted in the mid-1980s. Had Hamedah been sentenced today, Judge Kopf could have departed from the sentencing guidelines on the basis of the policy judgments he expressed but could not implement at the time.

Over the decades, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has tried several times to revise the crack cocaine Guidelines downward to ameliorate some of the unfairness produced by the crack-powder disparity. While Congress blocked the Commission's first attempt to revise the Guidelines and refused to act on the Commission's subsequent recommendations, when the Commission amended the Guidelines in 2007, Congress finally acquiesced, and in an unusual step reflecting the seriousness of the injustice the Commission made the change retroactive.

Though Hamedah did benefit from some of these reforms – her sentence decreased from life to 27 years, after Judge Kopf tried unsuccessfully to reduce her sentence further in light of her "extraordinary efforts of rehabilitation" – many of the corrective changes to sentencing law have come too late to help her or do not apply to her case. For instance, the recent Supreme Court decision Kimbrough v. United States would permit Judge Kopf to sentence a defendant like Hamedah to the lower sentence he believed she deserved if she came before him for the first time today, but the principles guiding the decision in Kimbrough do not apply retroactively. And when Hamedah tried to avail herself of the Sentencing Commission's recent revisions to the crack guidelines, she was subjected to a roller coaster of judicial decision-making that brought her tantalizingly close to freedom only to again be denied relief: This past June, Hamedah's new sentencing judge, the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp, initially adopted Judge Kopf's prior findings regarding Hamedah's extraordinary post-conviction rehabilitation, called the 27-year sentence "unreasonable and excessive," and issued a dramatic downward departure to 12 years (time served). Five days later, however, Judge Smith Camp ruled that the change in law did not apply to Hamedah, reluctantly reversed herself and denied Hamedah's motion to decrease her sentence "with profound regret and sincere apology to the Defendant, Hasan."

In the end, Hamedah's sentence – which two different sentencing judges have denounced as unfair, and which would not have been issued to a defendant in Hamedah's shoes today – cannot be corrected through the courts. Only the President, through the power of commutation, can stop Hamedah's harsh sentence from running its long course. Doing so would represent an important step in ending the indefensible crack-powder disparity, restoring fairness to federal sentencing law and reviving the commutation process to its noble and necessary function.

IN HER OWN WORDS...
> Read Hamedah's letter to President Obama
> Read about Hamedah's vision for life outside of prison
> Learn about the organization, "Family Village," that Hamedah plans to lead when she is free
> Hamedah tells her story for The Women's Media Center and the publication Alternet

LEGAL BACKGROUND...
> Judge Kopf calls for presidential commutation in 2001 in a memorandum and order
> Judge Kopf again calls for presidential commutation in a 2002 sentencing transcript
> Judge Smith Camp decries the harsh and unfair sentence in a 2009 sentencing transcript
> Judge Smith Camp is forced to vacate a previous ruling in 2009, which would have freed Hamedah