Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo today to federal prosecutors seeking to effectively end charging and sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine.
The memo, first reported by The Washington Post, orders federal prosecutors assigned to a crack cocaine case to seek charges and advocate for sentence lengths equivalent to powder cocaine. It also directs federal prosecutors to avoid drug charges that would trigger mandatory minimum sentences if the case meets several criteria, such as not involving violence or a defendant with an extensive criminal history.
