A commission survey in 1992 showed that only minorities were prosecuted for crack offenses in more than half the federal court districts that handled crack cases across the country.
No whites were federally prosecuted in 17 states and many cities, including Boston, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles. Out of hundreds of cases, only one white was convicted in California, two in Texas, three in New York and two in Pennsylvania.
While defending themselves in court last year against accusations of discrimination, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles stated that they did not contest accusations that only minorities have been prosecuted federally for selling crack.
"Unfortunately, in this court's experience, those high in the chain of drug distribution are seldom caught and seldom prosecuted," said U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts in Los Angeles, as he gave a 10-year sentence to a young black man—a college graduate who had mailed a package containing crack.
In another Los Angeles case, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois lamented handing down a mandatory 10-year prison sentence to a welfare mother of four who was paid $52 to mail a package that, unbeknown to her, contained crack.
"This women doesn't belong in prison for 10 years for what I understand she did," Gadbois said. "That is just crazy."