Last month, the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Commonwealth v. Newman, No. 1980 EDA 2012, ruled that the imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence by a judge, not a jury, relating to the use of a gun in a drug transaction is unconstitutional. The ruling was not completely unexpected, and the breadth of its impact on individual cases may be limited, but it could nonetheless have a dramatic impact on Pennsylvania sentencing going forward.
James Newman was involved in the drug trade. After a couple controlled buys at his apartment in Montgomery County, police obtained a search warrant. They found a large quantity of drugs as well as a gun, according to the opinion.
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