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Judge Assails Sentencing Laws
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Nov 2004
Source: Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, UT)
Copyright: 2004 Deseret News Publishing Corp.
Contact: http://www.desnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/124
Author: Angie Welling, Deseret Morning News
Cited: Families Against Mandatory Minimums http://www.famm.org/
Cited: ACLU Utah http://www.acluutah.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
JUDGE ASSAILS SENTENCING LAWS
He Reluctantly Imposes a 55-Year Prison Term
A Utah federal judge on Tuesday reluctantly imposed a 55-year
mandatory-minimum sentence on a first-time drug offender, but not before
delivering a scathing rebuke on the sentencing laws that mandate the term.
"To sentence Mr. Angelos to prison for essentially the rest of his life is
unjust, cruel and even irrational," U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said.
That said, however, Cassell said he had no choice but to follow the
statutes and sentence 25-year-old Weldon Angelos to prison for more than
half a century. But in doing so, he called on President Bush to commute
Angelos' sentence to one more in line with his crime. The judge suggested
18 years and asked Congress to revisit the mandatory-minimum laws that
required the term.
The sentence was handed down in front of a full courtroom of Angelos'
family and friends, as well as legal observers, many of whom expected
Cassell to declare unconstitutional the mandatory-minimum sentencing laws
that governed Angelos' sentence.
Angelos' loved ones, including his wife and two young sons, were in tears
upon hearing Cassell's decision. Defense attorney Jerome Mooney also
expressed disappointment.
"We just saw the effect of a Congress concerned about their seats and
re-election instead of justice," Mooney said, saying the harsh sentencing
laws prove legislators are more concerned with being viewed as tough on
crime rather than the imposition of fair punishments on criminal
offenders.To mandate a term that would keep the young father behind bars
until he is 80 years old, Mooney said, is "unjust, and Congress should be
ashamed of themselves."
Angelos, the founder of the Utah-based rap music label Extravagant Records,
initially faced at least a 61 1/2-year sentence for the 16 criminal counts
of which he was convicted in December. The bulk of that term -- the 55
years imposed Tuesday -- is based on just three firearms charges for
carrying a gun during two drug sales and for keeping additional firearms at
his Fort Union apartment.
Cassell imposed just one day for the additional 13 drug, firearm and
money-laundering charges.
The case has garnered the attention of legal experts across the country,
who have been following Cassell's moves since June, when he declared the
federal sentencing guidelines unconstitutional in the case of a Utah man
convicted of child pornography. That ruling came on the heels of a U.S.
Supreme Court decision that called the constitutionality of the guidelines
into question.
Mooney, joined by 29 former legal officials from across the nation, had
asked Cassell to find that the onerous mandatory-minimum term in the
Angelos case constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the
Eighth Amendment. The defense also argued the firearm statute is not
applied equally to all criminal defendants, a violation of Angelos'
equal-protection rights.
And although Cassell appeared to agree with the defense on nearly every
point, the judge, in a lengthy opinion released immediately following
Tuesday's hearing, said his analysis failed to meet the legal threshold
required to find a statute unconstitutional. Thus, he said, he was required
to impose the "Draconian" prison sentence.
"Our constitutional system of government requires the court to follow the
law, not its own personal views about what the law ought to be," the judge
wrote.
Federal prosecutors have maintained throughout the case that Cassell had no
choice but to impose the mandatory-minimum sentence. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Robert Lund argued Tuesday that lawmakers passed the firearms
statute which requires a five-year mandatory-minimum sentence for the first
charge and a 25-year term for each count thereafter with the clear intent
to address the growing problem of mixing drugs and firearms.
"Drugs and gun violence are an endemic problem in this country," Lund said.
"There's a huge societal impact."
Angelos' sentence simply reinforces the message Congress intended and will
serve as an important deterrent, Lund said.
"People who engage in armed violent crime or armed drug dealing are going
to face very serious consequences," he said.
Critics of the legal mandate, however, question the fairness of a method
that doesn't allow judges to tailor a sentence to fit a particular crime or
criminal defendant.
"Judicial discretion has always been the heart and soul of the American
justice system," said Monica Pratt, of the Washington D.C.-based
organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
Margaret Plane, staff attorney for the Utah chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, agreed.
"That's why this case is such a great example," Plane said.
"(Mandatory-minimum) laws apply without regard to the offense type, without
regard to the particular offender. It's really kind of a one-size-fits-all
approach, and that's not how our justice system should necessarily work."
Despite his ultimate finding, University of Utah law professor Erik Luna
commended Cassell for addressing the matter at all.
"Judge Cassell did a very brave thing in even raising the issue," said
Luna, an outspoken critic of federal sentencing laws. "We need to take this
to the next level, which is to talk to the politicians. . . . I hope and
pray some day that sanity will come back to the system."
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