FEDERAL MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCING STATUTES: INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS TO A LIST WITH CAPTIONS (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Aug. 19, 1999 |
| Report Number |
RS20306 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Charles Doyle, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Federal mandatory minimum sentencing statutes (mandatory minimums) demand that execution
or
incarceration follow criminal conviction. They cover drug dealing, murdering federal officials, and
using a gun to commit a federal crime. They circumscribe judicial sentencing discretion, although
they impose no limitations upon prosecutorial discretion or upon the President's power to pardon.
They have been criticized as unthinkingly harsh and incompatible with a rational sentencing
guideline system; yet they have also been embraced as hallmarks of truth in sentencing and a certain
means of incapacitating the criminally dangerous.
There are several varieties of mandatory minimums: the "not less than" statute, the flat sentence
statute, the piggy-back statute, and the guideline constructed mandatory minimum. The Eighth
Amendment cruel and unusual punishment clause condemns statutes that impose a mandatory
minimum penalty of death or a penalty that is grossly disproportionate to the offense. Few federal
mandatory minimums are imperiled under this standard and fewer still are susceptible to
constitutional attack on the grounds of separation of power, equal protection, ex post facto, or double
jeopardy.
This is an abridged version, without footnotes or citations of the introductory comments in
Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes: A List of Citations with Captions,
Introductory
Comments, and Bibliography , CRS Report RL30281(pdf) (1999); Federal Mandatory
Minimum
Sentencing Statutes: An Overview of Legislation in the 106th Congress , CRS Report RS20307(pdf)
(1999) is a sketch of related legislative developments.
