{
  "id": "RS21597",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RS21597",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 102608,
      "date": "2004-12-17",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T20:02:20.700376",
      "title": "Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes: Legislative Proposals in the 108th Congress",
      "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. They have\nbeen criticized as unthinkingly harsh and incompatible with a rational sentencing guideline system;\nyet they have also been embraced as hallmarks of truth in sentence and a certain means of\nincapacitating the criminally dangerous. Mandatory minimum sentences are not unconstitutional per\nse, although on rare occasions individual sentences may violate the Eighth Amendment proscription\non grossly disproportionate punishments. The 108th Congress appeared to overcome recent past\nreluctance and enacted a flurry of new or enhanced mandatory minimum sentencing provisions. The\nPROTECT Act (sometimes known as the Amber Alert Act),  P.L. 108-21 , (a) contains a two strike\nlaw that subjects certain repeat offenders of crimes against children to life imprisonment, (b)\nincreases the mandatory minimums application to various federal child offenses, and (c) applies the\nmandatory minimums covering child pornography to obscene visual representations of the sexual\nabuse of children. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act establishes a separate crime for harming\nan unborn child during the course the commission of various federal crimes against the child's\nmother (some which carry mandatory minimums) and subjects offenders to the same penalties as the\nunderlying offense against the mother, 18 U.S.C.  1841. The Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act\nestablished an aggravated identity theft offense with mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment\nfor identity theft committed in furtherance of various terrorist and non-terrorist federal crimes, 18\nU.S.C.  1028A. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act creates three new crimes\nrelating to weapons of mass destruction, each of which carries a series of mandatory minimum\npenalties, 18 U.S.C.  175c (smallpox virus offenses), 2332g (anti-aircraft missile offenses), 2332h\n(radiological dispersal device offenses). The Act annexed a comparable series of mandatory\nminimum penalties for violation of pre-existing atomic weapons prohibitions, 42 U.S.C.  2272. \nOther proposals concerned drug abuse ( H.R. 345 ,  H.R. 404 , \n H.R. 1435 ,  H.R. 4547 ,  H.R. 5103 ,  S. 390 ,\n S. 2444 ); firearms ( H.R. 2946 ,  H.R. 1330 ,  H.R. 124 ); terrorism ( S. 746 ,  H.R. 2376 ); fraud ( S. 1286 ,\n H.R. 2971 ); sex abuse ( H.R. 3913 ,  H.R. 4489 ); and smuggling\naliens ( S. 2871 ).\n  Related reports include  CRS Report RL32040(pdf) ,  Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing\nStatutes ;  CRS Report RS21347(pdf) ,  Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes: An\nOverview\nof Legislation in 107th Congress ;  CRS Report RS20307(pdf) ,  Federal Mandatory Minimum\nSentencing\nStatutes: An Overview of Legislation in 106th Congress ; and  CRS Report RS21346(pdf) ,\n Mandatory\nMinimum Sentences: Three Strikes in the Supreme Court .",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Constitutional Questions",
    "Intelligence and National Security"
  ]
}