The First Step Act Has Lowered Mandatory Minimums in Federal Drug Cases
First Step Act Changes to Drug Crime Mandatory Minimums
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The First Step Act Dramatically Changed Federal Drug Crime Mandatory Minimums
Prior to the First Step Act, if you had a prior drug crime on your record and were convicted of a federal drug crime, then there were mandatory minimum sentences that were required. This could be for basically any prior state or federal drug crime, including something as simple as possession of cocaine. The results of these enhancements was people receiving endless mandatory prison time. This was unjust and we are all very thankful that Congress finally changed the laws on federal drug crime enhancements.
Drug Crime Enhancement Changes Under the First Step Act
As is discussed about, the law used to be that any felony drug crime could serve as the basis for an enhancement. The First Step Act changed this by allowing enhancements only for “Serious Drug Crimes” or “Serious Violent Felonies.” A serious drug crime is defined as a prior crime for which the defendant served a term of imprisonment for more than 12 months and was released within 15 years of the date of the instant offense. A serious violent felony is a prior criminal conviction where the defendant served at least 12 months in prison and the crime was essentially a crime of violence.
Mandatory Minimum Changes to Federal Drug Crime Penalties
The First Step Act not only limited the prior convictions that can be used to enhance a sentence, it also lowered the mandatory minimums of the enhanced sentence. For example, the law used to be for a mandatory 10 year drug conviction, one prior meant a mandatory twenty years and two priors meant life in prison. With the Act, these numbers have been lowered to fifteen years with one prior and twenty five years with two or more. These are still huge numbers, but the First Step Act is a law that puts us in the right direction. With the five year mandatory minimum convictions (usually for lower level narcotics), the mandatory minimum enhancement stays at ten years for one or more more qualified priors.
Understanding the First Step Act Drug Penalty Mandatory Minimums is Critical to any Decision You Make
Nearly every drug case we handle in Federal Court involves a larger amount of drugs. Likewise, it is extremely common for our clients to have a prior history of narcotic trafficking. Because of this, it is imperative that we completely understand the positive effects the First Step Act has had on potential enhancements to drug crimes. Knowing what could actually happen changes our strategy and has made us more aggressive in our approach to fighting drug charges in Federal Court. If you would like to talk more about what we do, give us a call today.