Buffalo's US Attorney Does The Right Thing

The US Attorney's office in Buffalo, NY, has decided to not try enforcing waivers that would deny inmates serving federal time for crack offenses the ability to apply for a reduction in sentence now that Congress and the US Sentencing Commission have allow such a reduction. The office was one of only two in the country which used such waivers.

The Buffalo News reported on Feb. 13, 2008 ("Crack Sentence Cuts Won't Be Opposed") that "U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn will not oppose reductions in crack sentences based on a legal waiver that is routinely included in plea agreements filed in the federal courts of Buffalo and Rochester. 'After a lot of discussion, this decision was made in the interest of justice, in the interest of national uniformity of sentencing and in the interest of not tying up the courts with a lot of additional litigation,' said Joseph M. Guerra III, chief of drug prosecutions in Flynn's office."

According to the News, "The federal court system has 94 districts. 'We recently learned that our district and possibly one other were the only ones that had this waiver in their plea agreements,' Guerra said. 'That goes against the goal of national uniformity in sentencing.'"

The News noted that "Convicts who signed the waiver agreed they would never ask for reduced sentences, even if future changes in the law allowed them to do so. Several defense attorneys and the president of the Buffalo Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had been upset that Flynn's office was considering enforcing the waiver. Authorities estimate that 20,000 people who are serving federal crack sentences throughout the nation will request sentence reductions because of the changes enacted by Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. That number will include an estimated 200- plus men and women who were convicted in federal courts in Buffalo and Rochester. Judges will begin considering the requests March 3, according to Richard J. Arcara, chief of the federal judges in Western New York. Arcara said rulings will be made on a 'case-by-case basis.'"