Fair Sentencing Act Reduces Crack-Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity from 100:1 to 18:1

President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, reducing the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine, associated with Black defendants, and powder cocaine, associated with white defendants, from 100:1 to 18:1. Civil rights groups had sought full parity. The Act was retroactively applied through the First Step Act of 2018.