Taken from the RI Providence Journal Januaury 5, 2006. Full decision here http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/05-2455-01A.pdf

"BOSTON -- In a groundbreaking decision, the federal appeals court ruled today that Rhode Island's chief federal judge was wrong to reject sentencing guidelines that treat 1 gram of crack as the equivalent of 100 grams of powder cocaine.

Judge Bruce M. Selya, the only Rhode Islander on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote the decision, saying Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres erred by substituting a 20-to-1 crack-to-powder ratio in sentencing a pair of Rhode Island drug offenders.

"While we share the district court’s concern about the fairness of maintaining the across-the-board sentencing gap associated with the 100-to-1 crack-to-powder ratio, the proper place to assuage that concern is in the halls of Congress, not in federal courtrooms," Selya wrote. "In the final analysis, it is Congress, not the courts, that possesses the institutional capacity to address the problem in a coherent and uniform fashion."

that's very sad.....:no: :shake: :cry:

I believe the appeals court decision will be overturned by the Supreme Court, it was their ruling that gave the Judges the power to make the guidelines advisory in the first place. I don't know how close that decision was though it may be that Alito will swing it the other way. Who knows.

Off the grid: You really arent "off the grid." I would love to agree or have a basis to disagree, but at this juncture I can not. On an analytical and constiutional basis I dont disagree with the first circuit , as much as my heart tells me that they are wrong and Judge Torres is right. I have known Judge Torres for 20 years and even tried cases against him as an attorney. We called him "Ernie the attorney." As a jugde, a person, and an attorney I find him to be above reproach and of the highest character. He tries, always to do what is right and impose justice as he understands it. As a federal judge, he comes from a very "blue collar family" and background and has not forgotten his roots---rather unusual and maybe that is why I want to I disagree with the first circuit. But I digress.....