Former prosecutor testifies about sentences for crack cocaine offenses

Before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime Thursday, former federal prosecutor Veronica Coleman-Davis of Memphis, testified that she made a conscious decision that her office would not prosecute "five gram crack cases," the Commercial Appeal reported. Coleman-Davis was one of seven witnesses that testified about the crack cocaine sentencing disparity. During her testimony, she mentioned that for some black youth, "incarceration as a normative right of passage … we not only need to end the disparate sentences, but we also need to ensure some means of prevention, intervention and healing for those affected by incarcerated parents."