This law protects citizens from violent offenders. The problems lie with its ability to give prosecutors disproportionate control over sentencing. Commonly known as “felony firearm” carries a two year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing a firearm when committing or attempting to commit a felony. This mandatory sentence becomes five years with a prior conviction and 10 for two or more prior convictions. This sentence must be served in addition to and not during a sentence served for any other associated crime. If any other weapon is used during the course of committing a felony, this sentence does not apply. Mandatory minimum laws remove a judge’s discretion in considering other evidence or facts when creating an appropriate sentence. It also gives the prosecutor considerable advantage when seeking a plea bargain causing many defendants to “plead out” due to absolute minimum prison time. Michigan Department of Corrections 2013 data shows that almost 25% of all those serving sentences have been convicted of felony firearm charges. Data from 2016 shows that people serving the longest sentences are those serving the two or five year felony firearm charges. In 2013, 80% of those serving mandatory felony firearm sentences were non-white, compared to the entire Michigan prison system being made up of approximately 54% non-white inmates. Of all prisoners from Wayne County, 91% are serving mandatory minimum firearm sentences and about 57% of prison population serving mandatory felony firearm charges are from Wayne County. One University of Michigan study found unexplainable sentencing disparities in race was greatly influenced by federal prosecutorial discretion in sentencing.
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