DC Attorney General Karl Racine is leading a coalition of attorneys general who applied to the Supreme Court for certain low-level crack cocaine offenders to be able to seek resentencing under the First Step Act.
Aside from Racine, there are 18 other attorneys general in the coalition, including the ones from Maryland and Virginia.
The coalition filed an amicus brief in the case of Terry v. United States, which will determine whether the resentencing reforms of the First Step Act applies to people convicted of low-level crack cocaine offenses in addition to those convicted of higher-level offenses.
In the brief, the attorneys general urged the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s decision that individuals serving sentences for the lowest-level crack cocaine offenses are not eligible for resentencing under the Act, while those sentenced at higher levels are.
“There is no dispute that Black, Brown, and less well-off persons who were convicted of offenses involving crack cocaine received disproportionate and severe sentences as compared to violators convicted of powder cocaine offenses,” Racine said in a statement.
“The First Step Act was intended to provide relief to people serving harsh prison sentences because of unfair and racially discriminatory federal sentencing rules. In this brief, our coalition of attorneys general urges the Supreme Court to affirm that the relief offered by this landmark legislation applies to the lowest-level crack cocaine offenders, as well as to those who were convicted of more serious crimes. Not doing so would perpetuate the wrongs that the law sought to cure.”
Harsh penalties for crack cocaine exacerbated racial inequality in the justice system, according to the Office of the Attorney General, which noted that there is now universal consensus that treating crack cocaine and powder cocaine differently was unjust and had a disproportionate impact on communities of color.