Judges Speak Out
“Statutory mandatory minimum sentences create injustice because the sentence is determined without looking at the particular defendant…It can make no difference whether he is a lifetime criminal or a first-time offender. Indeed, under this sledgehammer approach, it could make no difference if the date before making this one slip in an otherwise unblemished life the defendant had rescued 15 children from a burning building or had won the Congressional Medal of Honor while defending his country.”
-J. Spencer Letts, U.S. District Judge, Central District of California
“We must remember we are not widgets or robots, but human beings. Defendants should be sentenced within the spectrum of what most judges would consider fair and reasonable.”
-Leon Higginbotham, Judge, 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals
“I think that a lot of people do not understand what is going on until, all of the sudden, they are caught up in the system; and they find out that people have been mouthing all kids of slogans, and when the slogans all come down to rest, they sometimes come to rest very hard on the shoulders of the individual.”
-David Doty, U.S. District Judge, Minnesota
“These unwise sentencing policies which put men and women in prison for years not only ruin lives of prisoners and often their family members, but also drain the American taxpayers of funds which can be measured in billions of dollars.”
-Myron Bright, Judge, 8th Circuit Court of Appeals
“As a consequence of the mandatory sentences, we (judges) know that justice is not always done…You cannot dispense equal justice by playing a numbers game. Judgement and discretion and common sense are essential.
-Joyce Hens Green, U.S. District Judge, District of Columbia
“We need to deal with the drug problem in a much more discretionary, compassionate way. We need treatment, not just punishment and imprisonment.”
-Stanley Sporkin, U.S. District Judge, District of Columbia
“I can accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences. In too many cases mandatory minimum sentences are unwise and unjust…The legislative branch has the obligation to determine whether a policy is wise. It is a grave mistake to retain a policy just because a court finds it constitutional. Courts may conclude the legislature is permitted to choose long sentences, but that does not mean long sentences are wise or just…A court decision does not excuse the political branches or the public from the responsibility for unjust laws.”
-Anthony Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court justice at annual meeting of the American Bar Association, 2003
“I resent the fact that the Congress has forced me and put me in a position where I have to send a young man like you to jail for 10 years for a crime which doesn’t deserve more than three or four…Because I know what 10 years in jail is going to do to you…This 10-year mandatory minimum is awful. It’s just terrible. And I must say that I can’t just blame Congress for doing it. They do it for political reasons. It looks good when some candidate stands up and says “I voted for a 10-year mandatory minimum.” I wish that candidate could come into this courtroom and sit here and have to sentence this young man to 10 years in jail. They wouldn’t find it easy.”
-Alan H. Nevas, U.S. District Judge, Connecticut