The country is shifting away from mandatory minimum sentencing – a type of punishment already rare in Wyoming.
The only man in Missouri serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for non-violent marijuana-related offenses is being released after more than two decades in prison thanks to a commutation from the state’s governor.
A month ago, President Obama commuted the sentences of 46 drug offenders across the nation.
“I believe at its heart, America is a nation of second chances,” he said in a video for whitehouse.gov. “And I believe these folks deserve their second chance.”
A few days later, he gave vocal support to reducing or eliminating mandatory minimum sentences.
Even John Oliver, on his HBO talk show Last Week Tonight, took a stab at mandatory minimums, devoting a 15-minute segment to the issue at the end of last month.
It appears the nation that once placed a heavy emphasis on being “tough on crime” and which now pays large sums of money to incarcerate one percent of its population, is committing to at least one aspect of the justice system reform: mandatory minimum sentencing.
However, these reforms might have limited effect in Wyoming, where mandatory minimum sentencing is rare.
Tori Kricken, staff attorney for the second judicial district, said she has only rarely seen mandatory minimum sentences handed out during her 15 years in the district court.
“By and large, I’d say 99 percent of the crimes don’t have mandatory minimum sentences,” she said. “Our state tends to like our judges to have the discretion to decide what the proper punishment is, so to speak, in any given case.”
The Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins houses 665 inmates and Department of Corrections (DOC) public information officer Mark Horan said only a handful are serving out mandatory minimum sentences.
The DOC’s legal counsel is in the process of gathering a more concrete count.
“We’re looking for crimes where probation is not an option, where a minimum sentence is specified,” Horan said. “But it’s safe to say there’s a very low number of isolated incidents of mandatory minimum sentences.”
When a citizen is convicted of a crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence, the presiding judge is powerless to impose a fine less than, or prison time shorter than, the punishment outlined by the law.
Kricken said the state statutes mainly specify mandatory minimums for serious traffic crimes, such as subsequent DUI’s or driving with a suspended license.
“In the federal system, mandatory minimums were more common, because there were sentencing guidelines that were eventually stricken down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional,” Kricken said.
In Alleyne v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled the details of a crime which triggered a mandatory minimum sentence had to be proved ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ rather than just ‘more likely than not,’ which had previously been the case.
In Wyoming, intent to distribute marijuana is a felony but does not carry a mandatory minimum sentence. However, if that felony is committed within 500 feet of school property or on a bus, the defendant, if found guilty will be sentenced to a minimum of two years in prison.
But ever since the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling, the prosecuting attorney must now prove beyond a reasonable doubt the felony took place under those circumstances.
Chris Christian, director of the Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said she sees this reform as a step in the right direction—toward no longer handing out expensive, lengthy sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
“We are very happy to see these moves being made from the national level,” she said. “Once the federal system begins to let some of these low-level non-violent offenders out, then the state can follow suit and we can reduce the size of our prison population.”
