{
  "id": "RS20306",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RS20306",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 102589,
      "date": "1999-08-19",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:43:09.358941",
      "title": "Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes: Introductory Comments to a List with Captions",
      "summary": "Federal mandatory minimum sentencing statutes (mandatory minimums) demand that execution\nor\nincarceration follow criminal conviction. They cover drug dealing, murdering federal officials, and\nusing a gun to commit a federal crime. They circumscribe judicial sentencing discretion, although\nthey impose no limitations upon prosecutorial discretion or upon the President's power to pardon. \nThey have been criticized as unthinkingly harsh and incompatible with a rational sentencing\nguideline system; yet they have also been embraced as hallmarks of truth in sentencing and a certain\nmeans of incapacitating the criminally dangerous.\n There are several varieties of mandatory minimums: the \"not less than\" statute, the flat sentence\nstatute, the piggy-back statute, and the guideline constructed mandatory minimum. The Eighth\nAmendment cruel and unusual punishment clause condemns statutes that impose a mandatory\nminimum penalty of death or a penalty that is grossly disproportionate to the offense. Few federal\nmandatory minimums are imperiled under this standard and fewer still are susceptible to\nconstitutional attack on the grounds of separation of power, equal protection, ex post facto, or double\njeopardy.\n This is an abridged version, without footnotes or citations of the introductory comments in\n Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes: A List of Citations with Captions,\nIntroductory\nComments, and Bibliography ,  CRS Report RL30281(pdf)  (1999);  Federal Mandatory\nMinimum\nSentencing Statutes: An Overview of Legislation in the 106th Congress ,  CRS Report RS20307(pdf) \n(1999) is a sketch of related legislative developments.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RS20306",
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          "images": null
        },
        {
          "format": "HTML",
          "filename": "files/19990819_RS20306_7a74992000a63adba45a7651739b30bd8644f357.html"
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      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Constitutional Questions"
  ]
}