Calling it an issue America can't afford to ignore, President Barack Obama laid out an expansive vision Tuesday for fixing the criminal justice system by focusing on communities, courtrooms and cellblocks.

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An unusual alliance of tea party enthusiasts and liberal leaders in Congress is pursuing major changes in the country's mandatory sentencing laws.

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A 2010 law designed to eliminate harsher sentences for black offenders convicted of crack cocaine crimes should not apply retroactively, a federal appeals court ruled in a deeply divided decision that several dissenting judges wrote amounts to furthering racial discrimination.

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11-2574 U.S. v. Hible

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Last month, in Dorsey v. United States (No. 11-5683), the Supreme Court resolved an important circuit split on the interpretation of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.

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The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that people who committed crack cocaine crimes before more lenient penalties took effect and received their prison sentence afterward should benefit from the new rules.

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The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the sentencing disparity between defendants convicted of crack cocaine-related crimes and those convicted of crimes involving the powder version of the drug.

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The Supreme Court seemed split Tuesday on whether criminals who were arrested but not yet sentenced for crack cocaine offenses should be able to take advantage of newly reduced sentences.

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Boston - The recent vote by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to apply its newly reduced sentencing guidelines for crack offenses retroactively has spurred debate among defense attorneys, prosecutors and law enforcement officials.

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The Obama administration is urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to revise its guidelines to retroactively apply a 2010 law cutting the disparity between sentences for crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses. If adopted, the proposal would allow more than 5,000 ...

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