Man who got crack sentenced reduced returns to drug dealing

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Man who got crack sentenced reduced returns to drug dealing

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-14/news/bal-man-whose-sentence-reduced-for-dealing-drugs-returns-to-life-of-crime-20111214_1_crack-penalties-federal-prison-crack-cocaine

Man who got crack sentenced reduced returns to drug dealing
Suspect convicted, sent back to prison
December 14, 2011|By Peter Hermann
An Eastern Shore man who got out of federal prison in December when
his crack cocaine sentence was reduced was sent back to prison this
week after being sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for
distributing drugs.

Prosecutors with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said Clevon "Ty"
Johnson, 38, went back to his old career less than a year after
walking out of prison.


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"Mr. Johnson did not learn the first time he went to prison for a drug
conviction and crime does not pay," said Ava Cooper-Davis, the head of
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Washington field office.

According to Johnson's plea agreement, he joined a drug conspiracy
selling cocaine in Cambridge and in Baltimore with several other
people. Prosecutors said a search of Johnson's house in Cambridge
turned up a quarter-kilo of crack cocaine and 10 kilo bricks of
cocaine. Another search at a business in Baltimore turned up more
drugs, authorities said.

Court records show that his 17 year sentence was reduced to 14 years.

Three men have now pleaded guilty in the case and face lengthy prison
terms.

Last month, The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote how revisions in federal
crack cocaine sentencing guidelines are resulting in reductions of
sentences for some defendants. The changes are nationwide, and are
spurred by concerns that crack laws are more severe than for power
cocaine, resulting in racial disparities

But Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosentstein was one of the few to
take exception to the changes, pointing out that often his office gets
convictions in drug cases that are easier to prosecute than violent
offenses. The long sentences means justice is served either way. That
tool may now be gone.

"In some cases, their record may not reflect the violent crimes in
which they were engaged," Rosenstein told Fenton. "When prosecutors
had these crack penalties, they used those to incarcerate people for
lengthy periods of time without proving the violence. It's much more
complicated to prove that somebody's involved in shootings and murder."
.

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