Prisoner And Family Reunite

Ernest L.C. Robison got off a plane at Denver International Airport in 1996 with almost 2 pounds of crack cocaine in his carry-on bag. He was immediately arrested by police who had been tipped off by an informant.

Robison, then 40, was convicted of distribution and possession of crack cocaine and sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Robison was a first offender. And if his bag had contained powder cocaine that day at DIA, he would have been sentenced to a maximum of six years in prison.

But at the time, crack carried a harsher penalty than powder, a situation that was remedied for Robison on Thursday morning when U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel ordered his release from prison. He could be out within 10 days.

"He's aged pretty gracefully, and the court is pleased you have the opportunity to leave the walls of prison sooner than later," Daniel said.

Robison is the first federal prisoner in Colorado to get a sentence reduction because of new government sentencing guidelines.

In December, the U.S. Sentencing Commission decided to implement new guidelines that could reduce the prison terms for 19,500 convicts in order to address the sentencing disparity that exists between federal powder- and crack- cocaine defendants.

In Colorado, 115 inmates are eligible for sentence reductions, and 24 could be released within the year.

Robison, graying and wearing baggy, tan prison pants, began to weep as he addressed the court. His family, sitting in the benches behind him, also started to cry as he thanked the judge.

The Denver Post