Thursday, January 9, 2014
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News For The Day


Central African Republic crisis: 'Like Darfur, plus anarchy' – NBC

By Ann Curry, NBC News National and International Correspondent


BANGUI, Central African Republic – At Bangui International Airport, nearly 100,000 people are living in a makeshift camp after fleeing the unspeakable violence that has seized this nation. They are hungry and living chock-a-block in hangars and under the wings of old airplanes. They believe the presence of French troops nearby will keep them safe. No one appears to be in charge.

Elsewhere in the city, an old monastery has been turned into refugee center filled with children who have endured horrors, like 8-year-old Ngaiso Chekina, who lost her mother, father brother, sister and grandparents to the sectarian brutality.
“I am the only survivor,” she told NBC News.

“I raised my hands to God like this but they didn’t listen to me,” she said. “Finally they killed my mother.”

Ngaiso is watched over by the only relative she has left, a great-aunt. In a program run by Save the Children, she drew a picture of her old life, with fish in a river behind her home and flowers near the front door.
At night, she dreams of her lost family and wakes up crying. She says she has no words for the men who killed her parents, only a prayer. “Bless me and keep me safe,” she said.

There are reports the president of the Central African Republic could step down as early as Thursday, sparking fears of an even more unstable situation.

At the airport, the United Nations World Food Programme was finally able to pass out food for the first time in four weeks. At times the desperation spilled out of control, with people yelling and shoving for a place in line. 

"Before life was not like this. We are living like animals. We kill each other because there is no justice," Archbishop of the Central African Republic, Dieudonné Nzapalainga told NBC News, adding, "I ask God to purify us so he can introduce us again to love each other."

The violence here has included documented cases of crimes against humanity and war crimes, according to Amnesty International. Both United States and United Nations officials have feared a slide into genocide.

On the streets, that fear is rising with reports that the interim president of the Central African Republic could soon step down. The reports from numerous news agencies, including Reuters, cite diplomatic and political sources as saying the resignation of President Michel Djotodia is "imminent" and could come as early as  Thursday.  If that is true, the concern is, revenge killings could come next.
Djotodia is reportedly out of the country, heading to Chad where a summit of regional leaders is being held.

It was Djotodia's accendancy to the presidency that lit the match for the rage of violence, when in this majority Christian nation, mostly Muslim rebels seized control of the government last March, and installed him as the country's first Muslim president.  The rebels then began targeting Christians.  After months of killings, raping and pillaging, Christians formed vigilante groups in response.

But there is more to what is fueling the horrific intensity of the rampages.  These two groups include separate ethnic tribes who've long struggled over resources, though before the coup they were able to live together and even inter-marry.
Now both sides are accused of systematically targeting the other, going house to house to pull people out of their beds, killing mostly men but also women. Even children have suffered the ugliest kinds of violence.

Ann Curry interviews Archbishop of the Central African Republic Dieudonné Nzapalainga, who said of the crisis in his country: "We are living like animals."
The violence includes torture, lynchings, beheadings, rape, drownings, people being set on fire, many ending up in mass graves. It is happening throughout the country, but most of the violence is here in Bangui.

Dependable numbers of just how many people have been killed are hard to find. About 1,000 people are thought to have been killed since December, but the true number is believed to be far higher. Fear of the violence has 935,000 people, or more than 20 percent of the country's population, on the run for safety, and more than half are children.

As Amy Martin, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in CAR, told NBC News, "This is like Darfur, plus anarchy."


Central African Republic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History 2012 to the present:
In November 2012, a coalition of rebel groups took over towns in the north and center of the country. These groups eventually reached a peace deal with the Bozizé's government in January 2013 involving a power sharing government.[16] This peace deal was later broken when the rebels who had joined the power sharing government left their posts and rebel groups stormed the capital. Bozizé fled the country and Michel Djotodia took over the presidency. In September 2013, Djotodia officially disbanded Seleka but many rebels refused to disarm and veered further out of government control.[17]
In November 2013, the UN warned the country was at risk of spiraling into genocide[18] and France described the country as "..on the verge of genocide."[19] The increasing violence was largely from reprisal attacks on civilians from Seleka's mainly Muslim fighters and Christian militias called "anti-balaka", meaning 'anti-machete' or 'anti-sword'.[17] Christians make up half the population and Muslims 15 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. As many Christians have sedentary lifestyles and many Muslims are nomadic, claims to the land were yet another dimension of the conflict.[20]

On 13 December 2013, the UNHCR stated 610 people had been killed in the sectarian violence.[21] Nearly 935,000 people were displaced.[22]
Violence broke out Christmas Day, 2013 in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic. Six Chadian soldiers from the African Union peacekeeping force were killed on Christmas Day in the Gobongo neighborhood and a mass grave of 20 bodies was discovered near the presidential palace. A spokesman for the president of the Central African Republic confirmed that assailants had attempted to attack the presidential palace as well, but were pushed back.[23]


This country has a long history of coups with only recent elections for changing leaders. The people have no cultural background of democracy until 2003. Read the Wikipedia article for more background information. The most recent changes of government from the Wikipedia article are pasted above.

Islam represents only 15 percent of the population, but they have taken over the government and declared the state religion to be Islam. At least there are Christian militias fighting against them now. Islam proclaims itself to be a religion of peace if you talk to law-abiding members of the faith, but it repeatedly has set itself up in power by war. Whether it's something about the faith itself, or the cultural groups in question, they too often are not promoting peaceful coexistence. They infiltrate unstable, fragmented and weak governments and take over. This situation is worse than usual because of the tribal conflicts and apparent genocide.

The US will probably be involved in it now that there are massive numbers of refugees. I hope not, because we are spread too thinly as far as our armed forces are concerned, and our budget is overburdened already. We could help the refugees, but I hope we don't get into the fight.




Dallas safari club calls in FBI after death threats over rhino-hunt auction – NBC

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor


A Texas safari club auctioning a permit to hunt an endangered black rhino has contacted the FBI after receiving death threats from animal rights activists, the club said Thursday.

Ben Carter, executive director of The Dallas Safari Club, said he received at least a dozen emails threatening his family unless he called off the auction, which starts Thursday and will give one person the opportunity to hunt one of the rare beasts in Namibia.

The club plans to donate the proceeds, which it said could be as much as $1 million, to rhino conservation in the African country.
"I've had death threats against my family and to members of my staff," Carter told NBC News. "A number of the emails said, 'For every rhino you kill, we will kill a member of the club.' It is some pretty crazy stuff."

Wildlife Rangers are on the frontline of the battle to save elephants and rhinos from poaching gangs. The illegal trade in rhino horn, highlighted by Prince William earlier this year, is threatening the very existence of the creatures. NBC's  Rohit Kachroo reports.

FBI spokeswoman Katherine Chaumont said the agency was aware of the threats and would take further action if necessary.

Established in 1972, The Dallas Safari Club describes itself as "a gathering point for hunters, conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts."
It said in an article promoting the auction: "What do you give the man that has everything? Well, guaranteed that man hasn't hunted black rhino in Namibia before."
The government of Namibia especially chose the club to receive one of five permits it distributes annually, Carter said.

The auction is to be held amid heightened security at the club’s four-day convention, which starts Thursday and is expected to draw 45,000 people.
Carter said the fundraiser was "the first of its kind for an endangered species."
The club said that because around 50 percent of male black rhinos die from fighting other rhinos, "selectively harvesting" the animals could lead to an increase in population.

In the 1960s there were about 70,000 black rhinos in the wild, but this figure is just down to 4,000 today. According to the club nearly of these 1,800 are in Namibia.

A new report details a massive surge in rhino poaching in South Africa, with the endangered animals now being killed for their horns at a rate of almost two a day. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports. 

Rhino horn has become more valuable per kilo than gold after a boom in Southeast Asia in its use for medicinal purposes in recent years.
Namibia’s Game Products Trust Fund will receive 100 percent of the auction money, the club said.

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, told The Associated Press that while culling was acceptable in some instances, it was not acceptable to kill endangered species.
"We've had a standard for more than 40 years that you don't shoot an animal that's endangered," he said Wednesday.


The thinking about this hunt seems twisted to me, but the government of Namibia's fund for preservation of the rhinos is benefiting from the hunt. Since people apparently can't resist killing for pleasure, maybe this means of funding is understandable, if not desirable. I have no use for all of these hunt clubs. Rich people apparently just don't have enough uses for their money. We should increase the amount they have to pay in taxes and put some of that money toward feeding the hungry. That would never become legal in this country, of course, but it would be more fair than the ever-increasing divide we have today between the very rich and other people. Just kidding – I think.




German man charged over WW2 Oradour massacre in France – NBC
By Sarah Marsh and Andreas Kranz, Reuters


German prosecutors have charged an 88-year-old former member of Hitler's elite Waffen SS with taking part in a World War II massacre of hundreds of French villagers, nearly 70 years after one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities. 
In the methodical June 1944 slaughter, SS soldiers took the small village of Oradour-sur-Glane in central France by surprise and killed nearly all its inhabitants within a few hours. They killed 642 men, women and children. 

Rainer Pohlen, attorney for criminal law, is pictured during an interview with Reuters Television in his office in the western German city of Moenchengladbach, Jan. 8, 2014. Pohlen is the lawyer of an 88-year-old former member of Hitler's elite Waffen SS, who has been charged by German prosecutors of taking part in a World War II massacre of hundreds of French villagers, nearly 70 years after one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities.

The men were herded into barns and shot dead while the women and children were burned alive in the village church. 
"The prosecution charges an 88-year-old pensioner from Cologne with (joining in) the destruction of Oradour-sur-Glane in France," said Achim Hengstenberg, court spokesman in the western German city. 

"He and another shooter are said to have killed 25 men in a barn with his machinegun. He is also said to have aided the burning down of the village church." 

The accused denies the charges, saying he did not fire a single shot in Oradour, according to his lawyer Rainer Pohlen. He even said he tried to save the lives of some. 

"He could have fired. He says, however, 'I had the great luck of being deployed for something else'," Pohlen said. 
"He said 'I heard shots, I saw people shouting, I saw the village burning. It was terrible. It was absolutely awful. But I was not myself involved in any of the action'," the lawyer added, quoting his client. 

Hengstenberg said the charge lay with the young offenders chamber of the Cologne court because the suspect was only 19 years old at the time of the crime. He was not named in the statement. The young offenders chamber will decide whether or not to open proceedings against the aged accused. 

Lack of evidence
The SS unit decided to wipe Oradour-sur-Glane off the map as an example to French Resistance guerrillas after a vehicle carrying an SS doctor was ambushed on a road leading to the village and its occupants abducted. 
Among those killed were 207 children, the youngest eight weeks old. Only five men and a woman survived the massacre. 
"It's important that we find some
one even if it's 70 years afterwards," Robert Hebras, one of the six survivors, told French broadcaster BFM TV. 

Oradour is an ambiguous symbol because it represents not just the atrocities committed by the Nazis but also a post-war failure to punish the perpetrators. 
Heinz Lammerding, the Waffen SS general in command of the unit that committed the massacre, was captured by Allied forces but never extradited to France and was sentenced to death in absentia by a Bordeaux military court in 1951. He died in his bed in Bavaria in 1971. 

Hengstenberg said the new charge resulted from a fresh look at a previous investigation into the events. 

In 1953, 12 Alsatian soldiers who took part in the massacre while serving in the German army were sentenced to life in prison and one to death, but France's parliament immediately pardoned them in the name of "national reconciliation". 
Their province of Alsace had been annexed by Germany in 1940 and Alsatians were deemed to have been forced to join the Nazi army, even though some clearly enlisted voluntarily. 

Earlier on Wednesday, a German court dismissed a case against a 92-year-old man accused of killing a Dutch resistance fighter in World War Two when he was in the SS, citing a loss of evidence. 


The pardoning of convicted ex-Nazis in 1953 by the French Parliament looks like modern antisemitism to me. Is this story about a case of finding a scapegoat for past leniency as the article says? The current condition of French society is questioned in the article below from CNN. It looks like it's an ongoing problem in France. See below.

Anti-Semitism row shines light on fractured French society
By John Sinnott and Sarah Holt, CNN
updated 7:50 AM EST, Fri January 3, 2014


(CNN) -- What's in a gesture?
A gesture of support for a friend, a gesture that is "anti-system," says French footballer Nicolas Anelka, who chose to celebrate his goal-scoring performance in an English Premier League game last weekend with a movement that has sparked controversy not just in the sporting world but also the political.

Known as the "quenelle," it involves pointing the right arm straight down and touching that arm with the left hand.

Anelka explained that Saturday's celebration was nothing more than a nod to his friend, controversial French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, who has popularized the gesture in France.

But others believe the gesture is a Nazi salute in reverse, and it has been linked to rising anti-Semitism in France -- a charge over which Dieudonne faces an investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office.

During a performance, Dieudonne said of a prominent Jewish journalist: "Me, you see, when I hear Patrick Cohen speak, I think to myself: 'Gas chambers ... too bad (they no longer exist)."

Whatever you think the "quenelle" is, Anelka and Dieudonne are provoking huge controversy on both sides of the English channel.

There have been demands that English football's governing body severely punishes the former France international forward. In France, Dieudonne's right to perform his controversial show has become a touchstone for "freedom of speech" advocates.

Fractured society
"This gesture was just a special dedication to my comedian friend Dieudonne," Anelka explained on his Twitter page as accusations of anti-Semitism seethed around him following the match between his club West Bromwich Albion and West Ham.

"(The) meaning (of) quenelle: anti-system. I do not know what the word religion has to do with this story!
"Of course, I am neither racist nor anti-Semitic."

Anelka is not the only sports star to be embroiled in controversy as photographs emerged of other French athletes -- basketball superstar Tony Parker plus footballers Samir Nasri and Mamadou Sakho, who like Anelka play in England -- making the "quenelle." All three have apologized for any offense caused.

But the furore has shone a light on signs of an increasingly fractious French society.
Daniel Makonnen, spokesman for LICRA -- International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism -- which is fighting fighting racial discrimination, told CNN that there was a 59% rise in anti-Semitic attacks in 2012.

According to the French Interior Ministry, there were 1,539 racist and anti-Semitic attacks in 2012, a rise of 22%.

He also explained that Anelka's use of the "quenelle" blurred the lines between what is anti-establishmentarianism and anti-Semitism.

"It is a way of Anelka boosting his image as a controversial person," Makonnen said.
"In France people are taking sides. Are you for or against establishment? The fact that Anelka is doing the quenelle...

"Originally it was used by Dieudonne in his first shows. But the 'quenelle' has been used in front of Auschwitz and in front of the (Jewish) school in Toulouse," added Makonnen, referring to the Ohr Torah school where three children and a teacher were murdered last year.

"If you look closer these people say they are willing to fight the system, but it's a system they say is controlled by Jewish people."

Powder keg
Philippe Auclair, the England correspondent of France Football magazine, said that Anelka and Nasri's support for anti-establishment views were very much in vogue in France.

"The idea that you are against the system invariably means that you are against anyone who disagrees with your point of view," he told CNN. "It has little to do with social or ethnic origin. You have young, white middle-class men and women saying the same thing.

"When I go back to France it is like there are two parallel universes; a government that is widely perceived as incompetent, with a social situation that is like a powder keg.

"Ultra-nationalism is on the rise and it has become completely acceptable to be openly anti-Semitic and to say that there is a global Zionist conspiracy."
Anelka also received short shrift from another French sports writer Erik Bielderman.
"Anelka portrays himself as an anti-establishment hero but this is an anti-establishment hero who is pictured emerging from his Rolls-Royce at the entrance to London Heliport and has appeared in an advert in France for the hamburger restaurant chain Quick," wrote Bielderman in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper.

Dieudonne congratulated Anelka on Twitter for using the "quenelle" to celebrate his goal against West Ham, which has a zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitic chants at its stadium -- prompted by racist abuse the club's fans aimed at the supporters of London rival Tottenham in 2012.

Read: Football grapples with anti-Semitism storm
The 46-year-old Dieudonne, who ran in the European elections as an anti-Zionist, has been fined several times in France for anti-Semitic commentary. The French government said this month it wants to ban his live performances.

"Dieudonne uses anti-Semitic discourse in his shows in the sense of fighting Zionism," Makonnen explained.
"He says he has Jewish friends. He is against Zionists who he says have power.
"He releases videos on YouTube and gets millions of views in 24 hours. YouTube is subject to American law. If those videos were published under French law those videos would be deleted.

"Dieudonne is very popular. He is very smart. People say it is hard to speak your mind in France because political power is too strong."
Meanwhile Anelka must wait to hear what the English Football Association decides to do.

"The club fully acknowledges that Nicolas' goal celebration has caused offense in some quarters and has asked Nicolas not to perform the gesture again. Nicolas immediately agreed to adhere to this request," his employer West Bromwich Albion said on Monday.

What's in a gesture? Anelka could yet find out to his cost.









Cry wolf? Large carnivore decline puts humans at risk , study says – NBC
John Roach NBC News



A few years after wolves were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995, fifth-generation Montana rancher Rick Jarrett gave up on the parcel of federal land near Yellowstone National Park that he grazed for 20 years. The carnivores harassed his cattle so much that they stopped gaining weight. Skinny cattle don't sell.

"It wasn't worth being there anymore," he told NBC News. To turn a profit, he now confines his livestock to several thousand acres on and around his ranch in Big Timber, where his cattle and sheep are free to pack on the pounds — for now. The wolves, he said, will eventually get there, too.

While Jarrett is bitter about having to live with wolves, such coexistence is increasingly necessary if the world hopes to reverse a downward spiral of its largest carnivores such as wolves as well as lions, tigers, and bears, according to a review study published Thursday in the journal Science. 

As the carnivores decline, ecosystems and food chains that humans depend on for survival are unraveling and, in many cases, adding to the economic woes of everyone from farmers to ecotourism companies.

"We should be thinking of ourselves in the end because if enough important species go extinct and we lose enough ecosystem services and economic services, then humanity will suffer," William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis and the study's lead author, told NBC News.

What to do?
Ripple and 13 colleagues from around the world found that more than three quarters of Earth's largest carnivores are in population declines. Most occupy only a fraction of their historic ranges and more than half are threatened with extinction.

African lion occupy 17 percent of their historical range and have experienced dramatic population declines due to killing in defense of humans and livestock, according to the study in Science.

The paper's main finding is familiar to wildlife conservationists — large carnivores are in trouble — but pays scant attention to the most important problem: "What are we going to do about it?" Craig Packer, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved with the study, told NBC News.

"I think that is a huge challenge."
Finding solutions is complicated, Ripple noted. The study, he said, is meant to illustrate the plight of carnivores and what humans stand to lose if the creatures go extinct — information that could steer policy via, for example, a global committee focused on carnivore conservation. 

In the paper, the researchers argue that humans are ethically obligated to conserve large carnivores — the animals have an intrinsic right to exist on planet Earth. They then back the argument with examples of the way the role carnivores play in the ecosystem help humans.

In Africa, for example, loss of leopards and lions has translated to an increase in baboon populations, which in turn are raiding farmers' livestock and crops for food. "In extreme cases, the farm family needs to keep their children home to guard the crops instead of go to school," Ripple said.

Other benefits of carnivores noted in the study include control of deer, elk, and moose populations, which in turn keep forest plants healthy for other critters, limit erosion, and enhance water quality. Parks full of wolves and bears also attract tourists, whose dollars boost local economies.

Wolf-specific tourism in Yellowstone National Park, the paper notes, brings in $22 to $48 million per year.
What's more, the scientists add, regions where carnivores keep other animal populations in check are full of plants that soak up carbon from the atmosphere, helping to slow global climate change. Jarrett, the Montana rancher, doubted such arguments would foster better feelings toward wolves. "Granted carbon sequestration is important," he said, "but the benefit we are going to get from wolves … is so insignificant it isn't even funny."

Sea otters prey on sea urchins, which in turn allow kelp to thrive and soak up carbon, helping mitigate climate change, according to the study.

Legitimate fears
The reality, noted Packer, who is an expert on human-carnivore interactions and deeply involved in African lion conservation, is that humans naturally fear these animals, often for good reason.

"You cannot expect somebody living in rural Africa or rural Asia to risk being eaten by a lion or a tiger so that your moral sense is gratified back in California or Texas or New York," he said. "Conservationists need to recognize that there are legitimate reasons why people want to get rid of these animals."

To reduce human predation on lions, Packer advocates the controversial use of patrolled and maintained fences that serve as a physical barrier between people and wildlife.

Ultimately, he said, the conflict among humans about our relationship with carnivores comes down to emotion versus intellect. While arguments such as carnivores' ability to buffer ecosystems against climate change are "interesting," in the end, he said, emotion usually wins. 

"You have to find ways that people feel safe and that people benefit economically."


The same wolves that harass the rancher's cows while they are grazing on free land in Yellowstone and such government preserves are keeping deer from becoming a problem to farmers by eating up the crops. Wolves and other predators generally take the sicker and weaker specimens rather than the healthy ones, therefore upgrading the overall health of prey animal populations and thinning them. This helps keep diseases from spreading. Diseases among bison can sometimes spread to cattle.

It's interesting that this article calls Packer's plan to put up and patrol fences to keep wildlife out “controversial.” I suppose that's because farmers are stubbornly sticking to their side of the dispute and don't want to compromise. Only killing the predators will do.

I don't want to see people killing off very many of either predators or herd animals. The well-known fate of the rhino is an obvious case, and primarily by poachers. I want people to survive alongside wildlife and enjoy the interaction. Most wild animals don't prey on humans. If our crops are in danger, then the use of fences would help solve the problem, and there are already refuge areas for many animals in Africa. Move the animals to the refuges.



­
­ How Long Is Too Long? Congress Revisits Mandatory Sentences
by Liz Halloran
­
Mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug dealers were once viewed as powerful levers in the nation's war against drugs, a way to target traffickers, and punish kingpins and masterminds.

But Congress, which approved the requirements in 1986 when crack-fueled crime gripped America's big cities, is now grappling with a present-day, lower-crime reality: Have the mandatory sentences put the wrong sort of offenders in prison, for too long, and at too high a cost for the nation to bear — both literally and figuratively?

Those questions are expected to be addressed in a comprehensive Senate bill being hammered out in negotiations driven by a seemingly unlikely alliance.
How unlikely? Among those driving the conversation are Tea Party Republicans like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah, and liberal Democrats including Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

Under discussion are proposals that would cut minimum sentences by half, give judges more sentencing discretion, and retroactively apply new crack cocaine sentencing standards to prisoners convicted under previous requirements.
Also being considered are in-prison programs that could help nonviolent inmates earn earlier release.

(President Obama dipped his toe into the debate recently when he commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates convicted of crack cocaine crimes. The convicts would have received far shorter prison terms under the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act standards designed to reduce the disparity between sentencing rules for crack and powder cocaine.)

"There's a lot more momentum today than in the 20 years I've been doing this," says Julie Stewart, president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, or FAMM.
"Over-incarceration used to be a fringe issue, but it has become more of a mainstream concern," says Stewart, who started FAMM after her brother received a prison sentence for growing pot plants.

Pushback From Prosecutors
But while advocates such as Stewart, libertarian thinkers at the CATO Institute and a growing number of conservatives like columnist George Will are pushing for change, some drug prosecutors have urged caution.

"The real power and efficacy of federal minimum mandatory sentences is our ability to hold them over certain peoples' heads in solving kingpin drug cases, or major murders," says Scott Burns, head of the National District Attorneys Association.
Burns was among the witnesses who testified about mandatory minimums last fall before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The sentencing rules have been "an important tool" in driving down serious crime, Burns says, which over the past three decades has plummeted.

He sees Congress' motivation as purely financial.
"They're doing this because they are simply refusing to fund more federal prisons, period," says Burns, a former deputy director of National Drug Control Policy during the George W. Bush administration.

There have also, however, been assertions that federal prosecutors have used harsh sentences as a cudgel to elicit guilty pleas.

A Human Rights Watch study released in December found that the Justice Department in federal drug cases regularly coerces guilty pleas by threatening long sentences.
The report came a few months after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department would not pursue mandatory minimum sentences in cases involving low-level, nonviolent drug defendants.

"We must ensure that our most severe mandatory minimum penalties are reserved for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers," he wrote in an August memo, which he followed with a set of guidelines for federal prosecutors.

A Panoply Of Proposals
A bill sponsored by Durbin and Lee would cut by half the 5-, 10-, and 20-year minimums now required for first and second drug-sale offenses.
Separate legislation offered by Paul and Leahy would give judges the ability to impose sentences short of the minimum guidelines. Additionally, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, have proposed allowing inmates to shorten their sentences by participating in re-entry programs.

And Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, has introduced his own bill that, among its provisions, would allow low-risk prisoners to serve up to half of their remaining sentences in home confinement or a halfway house.

Also under discussion is the federal version of the state-based "three strikes" law, which, since 1994, has required "enhanced sentencing" for defendants with two or more previous felony convictions in state or federal courts. Life in prison has been mandatory if the defendant is convicted of a serious violent felony and has at least one prior serious felony conviction, which can be a drug conviction.

Leahy, at a Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday, said he was encouraged by progress made to "reach a bipartisan and comprehensive compromise on sentencing reform that includes important yet incremental changes to mandatory minimum sentencing legislation."

The Financial, And Constitutional, Angle
The financial element of the mandatory sentencing debate is an important consideration.

Cornyn has touted his reform proposal as an effort to "increase public safety and reduce prison costs." In introducing his legislation, Whitehouse noted that 30 percent of the Justice Department's budget is now dedicated to federal prisons; the cost, he said, has doubled since 2000.

"As a result," he said, "funding for other important federal law enforcement priorities — from stopping cyberthreats to providing services for victims of crime — has suffered."

But legal scholars like Erik Luna, a Washington and Lee University law professor who has written and testified extensively about mandatory minimum sentencing, also assert that the sentencing rules shift power from judges to prosecutors — an infringement on separation of powers doctrine.

It's an argument George Will recently invoked: "The policy of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses has empowered the government to effectively nullify the Constitutional right to a trial."

Stewart, of FAMM, says she gives Rand Paul "a ton of credit for getting this conversation going. He cares deeply about it."
"The question we have to ask is why is prison always the answer?" she says. "We have to unlearn the bad habit we've developed of incarceration first."
Burns, the prosecutor, says he and members of the National District Attorneys Association are willing to talk about improving the sentencing system, but they want more specifics from Capitol Hill.

"We can always do better," he says, "but if you start letting people out who got there for a reason, most of them multiple offenders who have been convicted or have pled guilty, that would be a problem.

"Why arrest and convict, knowing he's going to be back on the street?"
But when a reluctant judge is forced by minimum sentencing rules to impose a 55-year sentence on a 24-year-old man after his third small-time marijuana sale conviction, Stewart says, pointing to the much-publicized case of Weldon Angelos, doing better isn't just an option. It's mandatory.


This looks like a good idea, in that these mandatory minimums are sometimes given for fairly minor crimes just because it's the third conviction. I wouldn't like to see rape and child sexual abuse cases be minimized, though. I hope they are careful who they free early and who they don't. This should only apply to non-violent people.