The US Sentencing Commission (USSC) unanimously voted today to apply its proposed Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA) amendments retroactively.  The FSA was passed by the Senate on March 17, 2010; it was passed by the House of Representatives on July 28, 2010; it was signed by the President of the United States on August 3, 2010; and it became effective on November 1, 2010.  The FSA reduced the disparity in the punishment of cocaine base (including "crack") and cocaine hydrocholoride ("powder') offenses from 100:1 to 18:1, and it eliminated and reduced mandatory minimum (M/M) sentences for certain cocaine base offenses.  Prior to the enactment of the FSA, the simple possession, possession with the intent to distribute or distribution of at least five grams but less than fifty grams of cocaine base was punishable by a mandatory minimum (M/M) sentence of five years; and those offenses involving at least fifty grams or more of cocaine base was punishable by a M/M sentence of ten years.  The FSA eliminated the M/M sentence for the simple possession of cocaine base in its entirety; and increased the threshold amounts for the five and ten year M/M sentences to twenty-eight grams and 280 grams, respectively.  The FSA also required the USSC to amend the Sentencing Guidelines' Drug Quantity Table to reflect these changes effective November 1, 2011, and today, those changes will be applied retroactively, unless Congress votes not to do so before November 1, 2011.  It is important to note, however, that the FSA has not been made retroactive; only the Sentencing Guidelines amendments.  Therefore, although cocaine base offenders who were sentenced before the enactment of the FSA and the Sentencing Guidelines amendments will receive sentence reductions, where appropriate, those sentences will not be reduces below the M/M sentences that were in effect prior to the enactment of the FSA.  Nonetheless, many offenders remain hopeful that Congress will decide to apply the FSA retroactively also.  The USSC estimates that approximately 12,000 offenders will be eligbile for sentence reductions which will average thirty-seven months.  Read the USSC's press release here: "U.S. SENTENCING COMMISSION VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO APPLY FAIR SENTENCING ACT OF 2010 AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL SENTENCING GUIDELINES RETROACTIVELY"

Former Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted at his retrial today in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois's Chicago Division on seventeen of the twenty counts with which he was charged in a second superseding indictment.  Blagojevich, more commonly known as "Blago" to pundits, was convicted on one count of making a false statement at his first trial in August, 2010, but the jury deadlocked on the remaining counts.  Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, decided to try Blagojevich a second time, with considerably more success.  Read the Chicago Tribune's article here: "Rod Blagojevich Sentencing: Experts Weigh in on Possbile Prison Term"