Judge calls mandatory sentence 'Unjust and Cruel'
KUTV.COM (Associated Press)
8/8/06
SALT LAKE CITY - Four Utah attorneys are challenging the federal law that mandated a 55-year prison sentence for a Salt Lake City man convicted of carrying a handgun during three marijuana deals.
Weldon Angelos got a heftier sentence than a child rapist or a terrorist who detonates a bomb aboard an aircraft, contend his attorneys, who have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the sentence as cruel and unusual punishment.
Angelos, now 27, was convicted of 16 counts of violating federal firearms, drug and money laundering laws in U.S. District Court here in December 2003. The charges stemmed from Angelos's sale of three 8-ounce bags of marijuana to an undercover informant.
Angelos had a gun during the transactions but never brandished or used the weapon. The three counts of possession of a firearm in a drug transaction are what required the imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence.
Angelos faced up to 105 years in prison for his conviction for an offense that would have likely carried a sentence of probation or a few years in jail in state court, according to his attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell sentenced Angelos to the mandatory minimum of 55 years in federal prison, saying he little choice but to impose a sentence that he called "unjust, cruel and irrational."
"This seems to be a case of grossly disproportionate punishment when you look at the facts of the case. Weldon Angelos didn't deserve a life sentence for his offense," said Erik Luna, a law professor at the University of Utah and one of the attorneys who will represent Angelos if the Supreme Court decides to hear the appeal.
The case is scheduled for a conference on Sept. 25, after which the nation's high court will decide whether to hear the case.
Luna said the case is an example of the consequences of mandatory minimum sentences.
"They take away the sentencing discretion of judges and largely put them in the hands of prosecutors," he said. "As a general rule the sentencing function should be conducted by a neutral and detached entity."
U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Kathleen Blomquist said the department would not comment on an ongoing case.
If the appeal moves forward, former Utah Supreme Court Justice Michael Zimmerman, Troy Booher and Jerome Mooney, along with Luna, will represent Angelos.
Mooney was Angelos's lead attorney in an appeal to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 10th Circuit upheld the sentence, ruling that it reflected Congress's intent to severely punish crimes involving guns and drugs.
In the ruling, the appellate judges said they agreed with prosecutors who said the sentence was appropriate for his convictions and for other behavior involving drugs, guns and gang activity that prosecutors had evidence of but for which no charges were filed.
Dozens of legal authorities have filed "friend of the court" briefs opposing the Angelos sentence as his case has moved through the appeals process. Among those signing such a brief before his 10th Circuit appeal were former attorneys general Janet Reno, Benjamin Civiletti, Griffin Bell and Nicholas Katzenbach, former FBI director William S. Sessions and numerous other former prosecutors and judges.
At the time of his arrest, Angelos ran a rap music label based in Utah, Extravagant Records, which had recently released a CD featuring several big name hip-hop artists.