Former federal judge who sentenced pot dealer to 55 years asks Obama to commute the sentence
A federal judge-turned-law professor who advocates for crime victims is asking President Obama to commute a marijuana dealer’s 55-year sentence.
Paul Cassell, now a law professor at the University of Utah, had complained the mandatory sentence for Weldon Angelos was unfair when he imposed it, report NPR, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Washington Post and a press release. Now 12 years have passed, and Angelos would likely be free today if Cassell had been able to impose the lower sentence he thought was warranted, Cassell’s letter (PDF) says.
Cassell says his request for a commuted sentence is not inconsistent with his advocacy for crime victims. “When the sentence for actual violence inflicted on a victim is dwarfed by a sentence for carrying guns to several drug deals,” Cassell writes in his letter to Obama, “the implicit message to victims is that their pain and suffering counts for less than some abstract ‘war on drugs.’ ”
Angelos, founder of the hip-hop label Extravagant Records, was accused of selling marijuana to a police informant three times in 2002, charging $350 each time. The informant said Angelos had a gun in his car and strapped to his ankle during the first two drug buys, and police found additional handguns in a search of Angelos’ home. A gun law required a five-year sentence for the first use of a gun in a drug crime, and 25 years for each additional use, leading to the mandatory 55-year sentence.
“In looking back on the case,” Cassell writes in his letter to Obama, “it was one of the most troubling that I ever faced in my five years on the federal bench.”
Cassell previously asked President George W. Bush to pardon Angelos.
