Justice Kennedy is right.

Byline: The Register-Guard

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft should have been listening last weekend when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy - hardly the voice of liberalism - told the American Bar Association that mandatory sentences for most federal crimes should be scrapped.

"Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long," Kennedy said in his ABA speech. "I can accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences. In all too many cases, mandatory minimum sentences are unjust."

Kennedy's remarks came just days after Ashcroft ordered federal prosecutors to closely monitor how federal judges are following the sentencing guidelines, and to note which judges are imposing more lenient sentences than the guidelines call for.

Kennedy's speech was a call for judges to regain their independence in sentencing. Mandatory sentences, whether at the federal or state levels, reduce judicial independence. It's the judges who preside over criminal trials who can best arrive at a fair sentence based on the evidence presented, the defendant's background and potential, and the overall facts of the case. Neither members of Congress nor state legislators have the knowledge nor understanding of all criminal cases to impose one-size-fits-all minimum sentences that may or may not be appropriate for a particular crime.

It's a given that prosecutors seek maximum sentences and defense attorneys seek minimum sentences. The trial court judges must weigh such pleas based on the facts of each particular case.

"The court on which I sit and other courts have upheld long sentences," Kennedy told the bar association, "but please remember because a court has said something is permissible does not mean it is wise."

Kennedy, appointed to the high court by President Reagan, is moderately conservative on most issues. His speech to the ABA is a belated but welcome criticism of sentencing guidelines in general and mandatory minimum sentences in particular. He, along with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and others, recognizes that the mandatory minimums have skewed the judicial process and undermined judicial independence.

Mandatory minimum sentences are the result of political calculations, not thoughtful judicial deliberations. They should, as Kennedy suggests, be scrapped.