Looks like this case is cracked

For thousands of prison inmates convicted of crack cocaine charges, the prison doors will be opening early, thanks to sentencing changes easing the disparity between the penalties for possessing or distributing crack vs. powder cocaine. Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act in August 2010, changing, among with other things, the 100:1 disparity between minimum sentences for crack and powder cocaine to 18:1, and eliminated the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine. This may sound stupid, but critics of the old sentencing system say it was unfair to African-Americans, who make up the majority of those convicted of possessing and distributing crack. Furthermore, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted this summer to make the reduced crack penalties retroactive, which means more than 12,000 current inmates are eligible to request time off their sentences. Under the new law, a person with crack will now have to have 28 grams (almost an ounce), instead of the old 5 grams, before triggering a mandatory five-year minimum sentence, but the person with powder cocaine still must have a much larger amount - at least 500 grams. But even so, the ratio should be reduced further to 1:1 because crack and powder are both different forms of the same drug, and there seems to be a racial component to the different sentences given out: crack cocaine is more common in inner-city black communities, and powder cocaine in white suburban communities.