Advocacy Call on Medical and Personal Use Marijuana

Nation’s Criminal Defense Bar Welcomes U.S. Sentencing Commission Vote to Reduce Drug Trafficking Sentences -- Washington, DC (April 11, 2014) - Yesterday, the U.S. Sentencing Commission took another step toward making federal drug sentences more reasonable. The agency approved an amendment that would reduce the guidelines level for most drug offenses by two levels, amounting to an 11-month sentence reduction on average. NACDL applauds the Commission’s action and urges Congress not to obstruct this modest, incremental reduction. 

Fla. Supreme Court Upholds State’s Controversial Drug Law But decision is at odds with state’s arguments in federal court case -- Washington, DC (July 12, 2012) – By a 5-2 margin, in an opinion by Justice Charles T. Canady, the Florida Supreme Court’s majority agreed in the result that Florida’s strict liability felony drug law at section 893.13, as modified by section 893.101, is constitutional – but as a concurring justice pointed out, might not be constitutional as applied in a given case. 

Criminal Defense Bar Applauds Retroactive Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing Guideline - Washington, DC (June 30, 2011) – When the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was signed into law last year, something sad happened. Defendants who were arrested for possession or distribution of cocaine base, or crack, the day the law went into effect no longer faced the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity and draconian mandatory minimum sentences of the 1986 law for possession of as little as 5 grams of crack, which was treated as severely as 500 grams, or over a pound, of powder cocaine.

Criminal Defense Bar Urges Sentencing Commission to Make Reduced Crack Cocaine Guideline Retroactive - Washington, DC (June 1, 2011) – Last summer, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was signed into law. While the legislation failed to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine completely, it did reduce that disparity to roughly 18:1.

Minorities Still Burdened with Mandatory Minimum Sentences - WASHINGTON, DC (Nov. 1, 2011) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has opposed mandatory minimum sentences for two and a half decades. The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s comprehensive report on mandatory minimum sentences, released yesterday, shows that statutory mandatory minimum penalties “apply too broadly, are set too high, or both, to warrant the prescribed minimum penalty for the full range of offenders who could be prosecuted under the particular criminal statute.”

Florida's Strict Liability Felony Drug Laws Under Attack -- Washington, DC (January 31, 2011) – A diverse group of organizations and law professors concerned about the elimination of intent requirements in criminal statutes are urging a federal court to declare Florida’s law prohibiting possession, sale or delivery of controlled substances unconstitutional.

Minor Drug Offenses Are Not Deportable ‘Felonies' Statement of NACDL President Cynthia Hujar Orr - Washington, DC (June 14, 2010) – A second minor drug possession offense does not constitute automatic grounds for deportation of a lawful legal resident, the U.S. Supreme Court decided unanimously today, reversing the decision of a federal appeals court. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) wholeheartedly supports this rational and humane decision.

Reducing the Crack and Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Should Also Reduce Racial Disparities in Sentences and Prisons - Washington, DC (July 28, 2010) – The House of Representatives today passed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, adopted in the Senate earlier this year by unanimous consent. Currently, Federal drug sentences for possession and sale are based on the weight of the controlled substance.

U.S. Criminal Lawyers Warn Against Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Schemes - Washington, DC (August 16, 2010) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) urged the Government of Canada to abandon bipartisan efforts to establish mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses at its annual meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Saturday.

Drug Courts Endanger Rights, Block Access To Needed Treatment for Drug Users - Washington, DC­ (September 29, 2009) – Drug courts – first created 20 years ago as an emergency response to an epidemic of drug-related criminal cases that clogged courts and prisons – have in many places become an obstacle to making cost-efficient drug abuse therapy available to addicts and reducing criminal case loads, the nation’s largest association of criminal defense attorneys said today.

U.S. Department of Justice Supports Ending Obscene Disparity in Cocaine Sentencing - Washington, DC­ (April 29, 2009) -- Assistant United States Attorney General Lanny Breuer today announced that DOJ and the administration support ending the 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine and equalizing the sentencing regimes. The policy position, declared at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, is the first time the Department of Justice has publicly supported equalization of cocaine sentencing.

Press Conference, Hearing House Committee to Review Cocaine Disparity -- Washington, DC­ (February 26, 2008) – Representatives of a coalition of citizens, community activists and criminal justice organizations are in Washington to participate in “Crack the Disparity” Lobby Day, which is being held in conjunction with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security’s cocaine sentencing hearing today.

Defense Bar President Praises Commission Vote on Retroactivity of Cocaine Base Sentencing Guideline - Washington, DC­ (December 11, 2007) – Carmen D. Hernandez, president of the 13,000-member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, issued the following statement praising the decision of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make the 2007 cocaine base guideline amendment retroactive for all affected federal prisoners: