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Cathy Wurzer

Minnesota led on crack and cocaine sentencing fairness

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President Barack Obama is expected to sign a bill that would reduce the disparities between sentences for crimes involving possession of crack cocaine compared to powdered cocaine.

MPR's Cathy Wurzer spoke with former Hennepin County Judge Pamela Alexander. In 1990, she ruled that sentencing disparities in a Minnesota law concerning crack and powder cocaine were unconstitutional. That decision was upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court and those disparities were removed by the Minnesota Legislature in 1992.