Number: RS20307
Title: FEDERAL MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCING STATUTES: AN OVERVIEW OF LEGISLATION IN THE 106TH CONGRESS
Authors: Charles Doyle, American Law Division 
Abstract: Federal mandatory minimum sentencing statutes demand that execution or incarceration follow criminal conviction. They cover drug dealing, murdering federal officials, and using a gun to commit a federal crime. They circumscribe judicial sentencing discretion, although they impose no limitations upon prosecutorial discretion or upon the President's power to pardon. They have been criticized as unthinkingly harsh and incompatible with a rational sentencing guideline system; yet they have also been embraced as hallmarks of truth in sentencing and a certain means of incapacitating the criminally dangerous.
Pages: 5
Date: Updated January 11, 2001