Journal article
The Effects of the "Safety Valve" Amendment on Length of Imprisonment for Cocaine Trafficking/Manufacturing Offenders: Mitigating the Effects of Mandatory Minimum Penalties and Offender's Ethnicity
Iowa Law Review, Vol.87, pp.401-433
01/01/2002
Abstract
I. Introduction Under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, 1 Congress established the United States Sentencing Commission and charged it with designing a sentencing structure that would avoid "unwarranted sentencing disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar criminal conduct." 2 Accordingly, the Act attempts to eliminate unwarranted disparity by strictly limiting judicial discretion and by creating uniformity and proportionality in sentence outcomes. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines were enacted in November 1987. 3 During the last fourteen years, Congress has amended the sentencing guidelines in numerous ways. One such amendment is 80001(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. 4 This amendment, 5 essentially referred to as the "safety valve," 6 exempts low-level drug offenders from drug mandatory minimum penalties when five requirements are met. 7 Essentially, this amendment is a congressional response to the extensive criticism of the harsh sentences imposed under drug mandatory minimum penalties in federal drug cases. 8 These safety valves automatically provide for an avoidance of mandatory minimum sentences imposed for offenses when: (1) the defendant is a nonviolent first offender, (2) the offense did not result in death or serious bodily injury to anyone, (3) the defendant was not an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor of others in the offense, (4) the defendant was not engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise, and (5) the defendant provided the government with complete information and evidence about the crime and other related offenses. 9 The ...
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Effects of the "Safety Valve" Amendment on Length of Imprisonment for Cocaine Trafficking/Manufacturing Offenders: Mitigating the Effects of Mandatory Minimum Penalties and Offender's Ethnicity
- Creators
- Celesta A. Albonetti
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Iowa Law Review, Vol.87, pp.401-433
- Publisher
- Iowa University Iowa Law Review
- ISSN
- 0021-0552
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/01/2002
- Academic Unit
- Law Faculty; Sociology and Criminology
- Record Identifier
- 9984306346502771
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