Congress reduces crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity

President Barack Obama signs the Fair Sentencing Act on August 3, 2010. The law reduces the federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 and eliminates the five-year mandatory minimum for simple crack possession. The old disparity punished crack cocaine offenses far more harshly even though crack and powder cocaine are pharmacologically similar. Because crack prosecutions disproportionately affected Black defendants, the disparity became a major symbol of racial inequality in federal sentencing. Congress acknowledges and reduces a criminal justice policy with severe racially disparate effects.