Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Thank you very much. I want to begin by congratulating Senators Grassley and Durbin on getting such strong bipartisan support for this bill, including support from the President. I am proud to support it, too. As I have said in the past: I am not a fan of mandatory minimum sentences, particularly those that are very harsh and allow no discretion to a sentencing judge. Early in my career, I sat on some 5,000 felony cases as a member of the California Women's Board of Terms and Parole. This board set sentences and granted parole to women sentenced to State prison. I recall one individual sentenced to more than a decade in prison for three marijuana cigarettes. The judge ran the counts consecutively, and the sentences added up to 15 years--15 years for three cigarettes. These sorts of cases are the ones that show why judicial discretion is so vital to our justice system and why the bill we are considering today is an important step towards restoring it. The bill before us makes several changes to criminal law. Most importantly, in my view, it reduces some of the harshest mandatory minimum sentences. For example, right now, the mandatory sentence for a third drug offense is life in prison without the possibility of parole. This bill lowers that mandatory minimum to 25 years. Similarly, right now, the mandatory minimum sentence for a second drug offense is 20 years. This bill reduces that to 15 years.…”