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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 9/16/13

Holder's Latest Lies Obscured by Syria

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Grover Norquist met Holder's alleged policy change with measured praise


 

Holder's comments did not simply identify ills within the federal criminal justice system; specific policy changes were announced. Under the new policy, judges are alleged to have more leeway when sentencing nonviolent drug offenders without ties to large-scale organizations, gangs and drug cartels.  If a defendant is charged with selling a controlled substance, they can be charged based on the nature of their crime and not forced to serve a mandatory minimum.  There is currently a five year mandatory minimum sentence for possession of as little as 28 grams of crack cocaine.

 

Despite the predictable laudatory comments from Holder's media myrmidons, a closer examination of exactly what is being proposed reveals the inconsequential nature of the changes. Holder's announcement vests federal prosecutors with a wider range of discretion in the charging of drug offenders. Those "with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels" are now to be free of exposure to mandatory minimum sentencing. Part of the problem with Holder's change is that this is exactly the sort of discretionary power that federal prosecutors have systematically abused. After all, what constitutes a "tie" to a drug organization or gang? These changes will most likely be used by prosecutors as an added inducement to turn those seeking leniency into cooperating witnesses against others and thus fuel the cycle of "snitching" that provides the backbone of the federal criminal justice system. Federal prosecutors can be reliably counted upon to assert their pathological belief that "power not abused is power unused." 

 

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Holder's proposed changes will likely increase the use of federal informants


 

Even more important, Holder's admission that he is essentially overseeing an unprecedented mechanism of repressive prosecutorial overreach was unaccompanied by any plan for relief for those already maliciously prosecuted and over sentenced. America's number and percentage of people incarcerated, coupled with Holder's admissions, strongly suggest that he is administering a criminal justice system employing the most pernicious mass incarceration the world has ever seen.  

Holder's empty gesture was recognized as such by some.     Bruce A. Dixon, editor of the Black Agenda Report, wrote that "After 55 months as US Attorney General, preceded by years as a remarkably vicious federal prosecutor, Eric Holder made what could have been a groundbreaking speech -- if only he'd made it 50-some months ago and followed it up with four and half years of the persistent, wide ranging action needed to begin undoing and unraveling the prison state." 

 

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Barry Scott Sussman- Born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in Sociology. Graduated with a JD from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law specializing in Federal Criminal Procedure and Federal Prosecutorial (more...)
 

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