From a Rick Casey Houston Chronicle article: In 2006 police raided an apartment and arrested an 18-year-old black man for selling cocaine, and "a white couple in their 30s who leased the apartment and made it available to the teenager in exchange for free crack for the wife." The husband had prior misdemeanor drug and weapons charges; the wife had previously been charged with theft, forgery, and prostitution. The judge presiding over the case gave the couple probation. The same judge sentenced the black teenager (whose record included unauthorized use of a vehicle and misdemeanor marijuana charges) to ten years in prison. According to prosecutors, the charges against the teenager were enhanced because an assault rifle and revolver were found in the apartment. (Those weapons belonged to the white man who leased the apartment.)
Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins' office, concerned about this racial disparity in sentencing, recently "withdrew the weapons charge, clearing the way for the judge to give" the teen "10 years' probation."
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