Forced to impose a sentence he deemed unjust, a New York judge has taken aim at a federal statute that required him to impose a life-without-parole term on a 32-year-old "relatively small-time" drug dealer with an IQ of 72. Judge David N. Hurd said child rapists and murderers will go free on parole while the defendant languishes in prison for life, largely because he was convicted of two drug crimes as a teenager. Because of those prior convictions, the sole sentencing option was life, Hurd said.
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Federal Judge Blasts Mandatory Minimum Sentences
New York Law Journal
January 20, 2006
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