A recent criminal case in the federal District of Maryland should be chilling to anyone interested in justice and fair sentencing. The 47-year-old defendant, convicted of the nonviolent offense of selling one kilogram of heroin, received a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. The judge had no discretion under the applicable statute, 21 U.S.C. §851, even though she found the required sentence to be “extremely severe and harsh.”
Almost as shocking as the sentence was the government’s handling of the case. As described in The New York Times [Dec. 5], the sentence was effectively a trial penalty, exacted when the defendant refused to accept a plea offer under which the government would have recommended a 10-year sentence.
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