For years, Judge Reggie Walton of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has seen the effects of drugs on the Washington community. A federal trial judge since 2001, Walton is regularly called on to punish drug offenders.
“[W]hat seemed unconscionable to me was the scale of the difference that existed between crack and powder [cocaine] penalties — a difference that had a corrosive effect on citizens’ confidence in the courts,” Walton said in testimony presented to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in June.
