The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Sen. Dick Durbin, D. Ill., introduced legislation today that would eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, a disparity that has been widely considered to have a discriminatory effect on African Americans and low-income people.

Under current law, defendants convicted for possessing just five grams of crack cocaine – less than the weight of two sugar packets – are subject to a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.  Yet, a defendant selling powder cocaine has to be caught selling 100 times – 500 grams – as much to get the same sentence.

The Fair Sentencing Act would raise the trigger for a five-year sentence for a crack cocaine conviction to 500 grams, the same amount that triggers a five-year sentence for a powder cocaine conviction.

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said that the bill "will fix a grave injustice in our nation's criminal justice system."

"Rather than solve our nation's drug trafficking problem, current law has created new problems, wasting valuable federal resources and diminishing respect for law enforcement in minority and low-income communities.  We urge Congress to pass this bill quickly and restore basic fairness to our nation's drug laws," Henderson said.