Jacob Sullum on Prosecutors Who Love Mandatory Minimums

In 1996, when he was the U.S. attorney for the
District of Columbia, Eric Holder urged the D.C. Council
to reinstate mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug
offenses, which it had abolished in 1994. Two decades
later, as an attorney general who has
repeatedly criticized “draconian” mandatory minimums and
sought to limit their use, he faces resistance from the federal
prosecutors he oversees.

Holder alluded to that resistance in a speech to the
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers last Thursday,
saying “any suggestion that defendant cooperation is somehow
dependent on mandatory minimums is plainly inconsistent with the
facts and with history.” More to the point, says Jacob Sullum,
coercing “cooperation” cannot be the overriding goal of criminal
penalties, which must be constrained by principles of fairness and
proportionality.

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