Editor Bruce Dixon recognizes Holder for being a "remarkably vicious federal prosecutor"
Dixon continued his criticism of Holder by writing "Let's stand Eric Holder's and this administration's expressions of concern over mass incarceration alongside its actual record of exercising the power in its hands. When we do, Eric Holder looks a lot like a lying hypocrite, and the administration looks like it's playing black America for a nation of chumps."
Dixon further observed that "for all kinds of reasons federal D.A.s don't exactly and often will not follow these (new) instructions. More importantly they can be quietly revoked at any time by this or any future attorney general, and none of it affects drug prosecutions under state law. That's a lot less than the sea change in the prosecution of the drug war you'd think happened if you watched CNN or MSNBC."
Similarly critical was attorney Jeralyn Merrit of Talkleft. Shortly after Holder's speech, she wrote "As U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., Eric Holder sought to raise marijuana penalties and restore mandatory minimum penalties for drug crimes. From the Washington Times, December 5, 1996 (via Lexis.com):
"Eric Holder yesterday said he will seek to make marijuana distribution in the District a felony and reinstate mandatory-minimum sentences for convicted drug dealers. Mr. Holder,...said the D.C. Council's vote a year ago to repeal mandatory minimums was "misguided,' leading to a backlog in the court system. He also warned that the city is on the verge of an explosion in violence associated with the sale and use of marijuana."
Talkleft's Jeralyn Merrit cited Holder's record as an extreme law and order prosecutor
The points raised by Dixon and Merrit highlight the hypocrisy of Eric Holder and the DOJ in general. Just weeks before Attorney General Eric Holder decried "unduly harsh" mandatory minimum sentences for certain low-level drug offenders, his DOJ told the Supreme Court there was no need to review the case of a convicted drug dealer sentenced to over 10 years in prison for a low-level drug offense. Michael Tigar, a prominent criminal defense lawyer who is representing the man, says the DOJ's approach is hypocritical.
"Eric Holder is perfectly content to make a speech to the ABA, and yet his own department that calls itself 'Justice' is taking the position here " that, 'Gee, we feel bad about this, but no court has any power to do anything about it.' And not only that, but we're going to sit idly by and nobody that is a victim of these things is going to get a lawyer," Tigar told The Huffington Post. "Holder's got to walk the walk, to use the clichà ©, and he has an opportunity to say to the Supreme Court of the United States, 'Remember what I said in August? I meant it,'" Tigar said.
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