New Sentencing Guidelines For Crack, New Challenges

In many cases, prosecutors didn't contest the reductions because the convicts were near the end of their sentences. In others, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on reductions within the new guideline.

Thousands more cases remain, among them hundreds in Washington area federal courthouses. They have been more difficult to resolve, prosecutors and defense attorneys said.

"There are no generic cases, and these aren't widgets," said Gretchen C.F. Shappert, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and the Justice Department's point person on crack sentencing. "They present complicated issues, and each one is different."

Lawyers say some cases present such complex legal issues that they expect appeals.

Certain cases are so difficult that, even when prosecutors agree that an offender is a candidate for a reduction, both sides disagree on how much. Prosecutors say some convicts don't deserve much of a break because of bad conduct or criminal history. And some offenders, they say, deserve no leniency at all.

"We want to make sure that dangerous people are not being released too soon," said John P. Mannarino, acting chief of the special proceedings division of the U.S. attorney's office in the District. "We want to make sure that the reductions are appropriate."

Mary Manning Petras, an assistant federal public defender, has led the fight in U.S. District Court in Washington to reduce sentences for crack offenders. She has won earlier releases for more than 150 and is working on scores of others, sometimes pursuing novel legal arguments.

She says she tries to get judges to understand how unfair crack sentences have been. One she cites is the case of Donnell O. Williams, 37.

Since age 11, Williams had been a member of the R Street Crew, a ruthless drug gang in Northeast Washington that made headlines in the early 1990s.

At a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan in October, Petras argued that Williams played a minor role in the gang and said prosecutors originally offered him a plea deal that would have capped his sentence at five years. But the agreement evaporated when a co-defendant refused to accept a similar deal, and Williams and four others were convicted at trial. He was sentenced to life.

Prosecutors conceded that Williams deserved some benefit from the commission's guideline changes. But they argued that Williams was an important cog in the gang, had carried guns and was present when other crew members committed violence. They said Hogan shouldn't reduce the sentence below 30 years, leaving Williams with about nine more years to serve.

By speakerphone during the hearing, Williams told Hogan that he wanted to be a productive citizen and "to have some more kids, get married and spend the rest of my days as an old man, a happy, free man."