A former federal judge in Utah asked President Barack Obama Tuesday to "swiftly" give clemency to Weldon Angelos, a man he sentenced to 55 years in prison in connection with selling marijuana.
Calling the sentence "one of the most troubling that I ever faced in my five years on the federal bench," Paul Cassell, now a professor at the University of Utah's law school, said the mandatory minimum sentence he was required to impose on Angelos was one of the chief reasons he chose to step down as a judge.
"I write you as the judge who sentenced Weldon Angelos to a 55-year mandatory minimum prison term for non-violent drug offenses," Cassell wrote to Obama. "It appears to me that Mr. Angelos meets all of the criteria for a commuted sentence.''Cassell was appointed to the bench in 2002 by former President George W. Bush.
In December, Obama granted clemency to 95 drug offenders as part of his continuing effort to give relief to drug offenders who were harshly sentenced in the nation's war on drugs. But Angelos, who is behind bars at the Federal Correctional Institution at Mendota, was not on the president's list.
The president has commuted the sentences of 184 federal inmates, more individuals than the past five presidents combined. But sentencing reform advocates say that hundreds-and potentially thousands-of inmates who meet the Obama administration's criteria for clemency, including Angelos, are still behind bars.
When asked about Angelos, the White House said it does comment on pending cases.
Angelos, the son of a Greek immigrant and the 36-year-old father of three, is one of the nation's most famous nonviolent drug offenders and a symbol of the severe mandatory sentences. His case has been widely championed, including by Utah's Republican Sen. Mike Lee, former FBI Director Bill Sessions, the group Families Against Mandatory Minimums and conservative billionaire Charles Koch.
"Judge Cassell's letter articulates well the grave injustice involved in Weldon's prison sentence," said Mark Holden, general counsel and senior vice president of Koch Industries," who has urged attention to the Angelos case.
Like many inmates, Angelos has missed being with his children as they grew up. His 18-year-old son, Anthony, was six when he was sent to prison. His son, Jesse, was 4. His 13-year-old daughter, Meranda, was an infant. In an interview, Angelos said he had hoped the president would grant him clemency in time for him to see Anthony graduate from high school in June.
Angelos was sentenced to 55 years without the possibility of parole after he sold marijuana to a police informant three times in 2002, each time charging $350. Prosecutors alleged that Angelos, the founder of Utah hip-hop label Extravagant, was a gang member and a drug dealer. Angelos denied the allegations and declined a plea bargain offered by prosecutors.
Angelos never used or pulled a gun, but the informant later testified in court that he saw one in Angelos's car during the first buy. He said that during the second buy, Angelos was wearing an ankle holster holding a firearm. Officers later searched his home and found a gun.
The sentence Angelos received as a nonviolent first-time offender fell under a law called 924(c).Federal drug laws require 5- to 30-year mandatory minimum sentences for possessing, brandishing or discharging a gun during a drug-trafficking crime. For each subsequent gun conviction, there is a mandatory sentence of 25 years that must be served consecutively. This is often referred to as "gun stacking," which is why Angelos received 55 years without parole.
He received five years for the gun in the car; 25 years for the second gun charge, having one in an ankle strap; and another 25 years for a third firearms charge, the gun police found in his home. He got one day for the marijuana.
In 2004, when Cassell sentenced Angelos, he wrote a lengthy opinion, comparing Angelos's sentence (738 months) with the guideline sentences for the kingpin of three major drug trafficking rings that caused three deaths (465 months), a three-time aircraft hijacker (405 months), a second-degree murderer of three victims (235 months) and the rapist of three 10-year-olds (188 months).
Cassell's letter to Obama is not the first time that he has sought a presidential pardon for Angelos. He called his sentence "unjust, cruel and even irrational" in a letter to Bush, asking him to give Angelos clemency.
"Now that Mr. Angelos has served more than twelve years in prison," Cassell wrote to Obama, "I once again want to call on [the president] to commute his sentence."