[DailyCaller.com]
9:27 AM 04/11/2014
A
federal judge criticized Attorney General Eric Holder for directing
prosecutors to pursue shorter prison sentences for drug crimes before
new guidelines for sentencing had been approved.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission approved the reduced
sentences for federal drug trafficking offenses on Thursday. Holder
endorsed the move last month, and the Justice Department instructed
prosecutors not to object if defendants sought the newly-proposed
guidelines during sentencing.
The Justice Department’s eagerness to apply more lenient
sentencing before it had been approved through the appropriate channels
frustrated commission member Judge William H. Pryor Jr., despite his
support for the reform.
“I regret that, before we voted on the amendment, the
Attorney General instructed Assistant United States Attorneys across the
Nation not to object to defense requests to apply the proposed
amendment in sentencing proceedings going forward,” he said Thursday.
“That unprecedented instruction disrespected our statutory
role, ‘as an independent commission in the judicial branch,’ to
establish sentencing policies and practices under the Sentencing Reform
Act of 1984… and the role of Congress, as the legislative branch, to
decide whether to revise, modify, or disapprove our proposed
amendment…We do not discharge our statutory duty until we vote on a
proposed amendment, and Congress, by law, has until November 1 to decide
whether our proposed amendment should become effective.”
“The law provides the Executive no authority to establish
national sentencing policies based on speculation about how we and
Congress might vote on a proposed amendment,” Pryor’s continued.
“I appreciate the Attorney General’s personal appearance
before the Commission last month and his helpful comments in support of
this amendment, but I hope that we can avoid, in the future, the kind of
improper instruction that he sent federal prosecutors before we voted
on the amendment.”
Despite Pryor’s misgivings, the commission’s vote Thursday was good news for Holder.
“This action by the U.S. Sentencing Commission represents a milestone
in our effort to reshape the criminal justice system’s approach to
dealing with drug offenders,” he said in a statement calling on Congress
to legislation that would help reduce the prison population. 
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