Former Baseball Star Willie Aikens Testifies Before Congress on Crack Cocaine Disparity

On May 21, former major league baseball star Willie Mays Aikens testified at a U.S. House Judiciary Hearing about the harsh drug sentencing laws that put him behind bars for 14 years.

In 1994, Aikens was sentenced to nearly 21 years for crack cocaine distribution, bribery and gun charges. He was released last June after his sentence was reduced because of the U.S. Sentencing Commission's recent adjustment to the crack cocaine sentencing guidelines. At first glance, the charges, coupled with the lengthy sentence he received, one would think Aikens was a major drug dealer. In reality, he was simply an addict with a major drug problem that cost him dearly.

According to Willie, a woman arrived at his house looking for someone to get her drugs. It turned out that she was an uncover officer with the Kansas City policy department. Over the course of several weeks she accompanied Aikens to his drug supplier's house to buy cocaine. The informant insisted that he convert the powder cocaine into crack cocaine by cooking it for her. Aikens agreed to do it. He said that his justification to do so enabled him to steal more cocaine from her to support his drug habit. But he did not know that the Kansas City police department would turn over his case to the federal authorities where he would receive the maximum possible sentence under the "100-to-1" disparity ratio outlined in the federal guidelines for crack cocaine crimes.

This law triggers a mandatory five-year prison sentence for possessing five grams of crack -- the weight of two small sugar cubes -- while a person carrying 500 grams of powder cocaine would receive the same sentence. Instead of the extraordinarily long sentence Aikens received for the 62 grams he was charged with, he would have gotten 27 months for the same amount of powder cocaine.

There is growing momentum to equalize the laws. As a presidential candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama co-sponsored legislation, introduced by then-Sen. Joe Biden, that called for the elimination of the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity. Within 24 hours of taking office, the White House website made clear that Obama's campaign commitments to eliminate the crack/powder disparity was now official administration policy. Last month, Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department endorsed the complete elimination of the vast sentencing disparities between powder and crack cocaine cases, an inequality that research shows has disproportionately affected poor and minority defendants.

Aikens testified along with Lanny A. Breuer, head of the criminal justice division at the Justice Department, at a legislative hearing before the House Judiciary's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

The Crack the Disparity Coalition, a diverse network of religious, civil rights, criminal justice and law enforcement organizations working to end the disparity, hand delivered to Congress a petition with more than 21,000 signatures that highlight the support for reform. Veronica F. Coleman-Davis, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, also testified at the hearing.

"After more than 20 years, multiple studies debunking the myths, recommendations from the United States Sentencing Commission and at least two generations of families and children torn by the systemic imposition of imprisonment for one-100th the amount of cocaine than their white counterparts, it is surely not only good policy but also good politics to correct this injustice," said Davis in her hearing testimony.

"Already this spring we've had more movement on this issue than in the entire last Congress, said Jasmine Tyler of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Congress can no longer ignore their responsibility and needs to immediately enact legislation to overturn the two-decade-old law that has led to the greatest racial disparity in our nation's criminal justice system."

Comments

[RobinSeattle]

While I have very little sympathy for Willie Mays Aikens, who was at the center of a drug scandal that gave MLB a black eye while he was an active player, and who knew that what he was doing in helping that woman get coke was completely illegal, it is becoming more and more evident that turning addicts into prison inmates just does not work and all it guarantees is that we will continue to blow more money and law enforcement time that could be better used elsewhere on what is a personal problem.

Drug treatment needs to be more widely available and at prices regular people can afford while also isolating them in such a way to where they can completely detox off whatever it is they are hooked on.

People are going to get high. They have been doing it for thousands of years. So prohibition does not work and is just a series of big paydays for organized crime. So we can only try to manage it as best we can as social policy rather than as something in the penal code.

[DannyDanson]

"Gave the MLB a blackeye", sort of like the "Modern Heros of baseball" who have been injecting steroids into their bodies for decades only to grace the walls of the MLB Hall Fame, as inspirational figures to thousands of children per year.

I think you miss the point entirely in your attempts to justify these inequitable sentencing practices, by deflecting the issues towards a personal critique of Aiken, he's served more than his due.

Point of reference if you didn't know (1gram cocaine = 2 -3 grams of crack cocaine) so to elaborate on the injustice consider this.

Individual 1 has 62 grams of cocaine and gets arrested enroute to distribute it and recieves 27 months in jail, just say he didn't get caught and distributed 62 grams to 31 people in 2 gram portions, each of the 31 turns 2grams of powder into 5 grams of crack.

So, the distributor only risks 27 months to sell 2 grams to 31 people, however given the disparity in sentencing the "buyers" would altogether recieve a total of 155 years in prison, the distributor will be out 27 months to find 31 new buyers.

[Grulg]

That's really sad what happened to Willie Mays Aikens. I remember watching him demolish the Phillies in the '80 WS, his team lost but he whacked 4 homers in those 6 games. He could really hit.

These laws are goofy.