After 20 years of off-and-on deliberations, Congress in 2010 finally passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the crack-to-powder cocaine disparity in sentencing from a ratio of 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. Congress did not clearly specify, however, which offenders should benefit from the reduced punishment — those previously sentenced, those whose sentences had yet to become final, or only those committing offenses after the act went into effect.
That question was litigated around the country and in 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court held in United States v. Dorsey that the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act’s reduction in prison time for many crack offenses should be applied to those whose sentences had yet to become final, but could not be applied to those who had plea bargained or been sentenced before the law’s enactment.
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