How do the mandatory minimum sentences work?
Well, the federal narcotics laws do set basically quantity based sentences. And, for instance, in the Settembrino case, with 30 grams of LSD, that’s three times the quantity of drug that you need to trigger the 10-year minimum mandatory sentence, so once you get that quantity of narcotics, you’re facing that kind of sentence. I can’t speak for Congress, that’s not my prerogative, … but what it does is give some uniformity to the sentencing. Before the guidelines, before the mandatory minimums [were established] sentences were, if you will, all over the waterfront. Someone might be arrested in Rhode Island and receive probation, whereas if someone was in Des Moines, they might get five to eight years. And so what the Congress and the Sentencing Commission have tried to do is establish uniformity in sentencing, so that it’s not as discretionary, to avoid, if you will, the lightning strikes. And, granted, the sentences are extreme, not extreme, but they’re heavy. … Joey appealed his s
