6Th Circuit Court Of Appeals: Law Reducing Crack Cocain Sentences I Retroactive, Demands Resentencings.

Court: Law applying crack sentences retroactive

A federal appeals court has ruled that anyone serving prison time in a crack cocaine case should get a new sentence under a law lessening the sentences for offenders.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday concluded that the Fair Sentencing Act is fully retroactive. Judge Gilbert Merritt wrote for the court that excluding some crack cocaine offenders from the benefit of the law is discriminatory.

The ruling came in the case of two Kentucky men sentenced to 10 years each for distribution of crack cocaine before the new law took effect.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2012 that people who committed crack cocaine crimes before more lenient penalties took effect in 2010 and received their prison sentence afterward should benefit from the new rules.