First-Time Marijuana Seller Gets 55-Year Sentence
 

Check out this alert I just got from the Liberator.

First-Time Marijuana Seller Gets 55-Year Sentence

On November 16, Utah Judge Paul G. Cassell gave a 22-year sentence to a
murderer who beat an elderly woman to death with a log.

Two hours later, he sentenced nonviolent, first-time-offender Weldon
Angelos, age 24, to 55 years and a day in essence, a life sentence.

Weldon?s crime? Selling a small amount of marijuana to a Utah
undercover policeman.

How was this possible? It was yet another horror story created by
America?s savage mandatory minimum sentencing laws, imposed by Congress
during the ?get tough on drugs? mania that seized Congress in the 1980s.

Angelos wore a small pistol in an ankle holster when he sold the
marijuana. Although he didn?t use, threaten to use, or brandish the weapon,
that triggered the federal mandatory minimum laws, and sent his sentence
skyrocketing.

Angelos? mandatory 55 years is based on three firearms-related charges:
for carrying a gun during two drug sales and for keeping additional
firearms at his apartment. Federal law require a five-year
mandatory-minimum sentence for the first charge and a 25-year term for each count
thereafter.

Under federal law, Judge Cassell had no choice but to impose the 55
years.

Cassell is no softie on crime. He?s a Bush appointee, former
prosecutor, and death penalty advocate.

But he was horrified by what the law forced him to do to Weldon
Angelos. So horrified, in fact, that he wrote a 67-page memorandum denouncing
the mandatory sentencing and asking Bush to commute the sentence to a
more reasonable (in his mind) 18 years.

Under federal law, Judge Cassell noted, an airplane hijacker would get
24 years. A bomb-detonating terrorist would get a 19-year sentence. A
three-time child rapist would get 15 years.

"Is there a rational basis for giving Mr. Angelos more time than the
hijacker, the murderer, the rapist?" Judge Cassell wrote. ?To sentence
Mr. Angelos to prison for the rest of his life is unjust, cruel, and even
irrational."

A respected and growing body of individuals and organizations, from
across the political spectrum, oppose mandatory sentencing laws. A few:

* U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist
* Former attorney general Edwin Meese
* Former FBI director Louis Freeh
* Former drug czar Barry McCaffrey
* The American Bar Association
* The National Association of Veteran Police Officers
* The National Council of La Raza
* The American Psychological Association
* The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
* The Federal Courts Study Committee
* The American Civil Liberties Union
* The U.S. Sentencing Commission
* Each of the 11 Federal Judicial Circuits

The Angelos case is bringing some well-deserved attention to the
horrors and injustice of these barbaric laws.

But a libertarian analysis of the case goes much further than that. Two
simple questions: Why should it be a crime to sell marijuana in the
first place? And why should it be illegal to exercise your Second
Amendment right to keep and bear arms while engaged in peaceful, consensual
commercial activities?

(Sources: FAMM -- Families Against Mandatory Minimums:
http://www.famm.org/index2.htm )

* * *

Little harsh!:rasta :smokin :pimp

Hey did you hear? Your not supposed to sell grass.

But hey.. bomb a school and in 20 years you're good to go again!

irrelevant, carry gun, sell grass to police= go to jail, BYE BYE:1orglaugh

You're.

I forget who it is but some celebrity just started an organization to try to reduce punishments for pot smokers/dealers.

He didn't get the 55 years for selling weed. The gun is what did it.

Bush will never commute that sentence.

But maybe in the next 55 years a president will come in who has the guts to do it.

what a joke.

But then again it is America (the land of the free):flagface

Please help support FAMM.


Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1991 to challenge inflexible and excessive penalties required by mandatory sentencing laws. FAMM promotes sentencing policies that give judges the discretion to distinguish between defendants and sentence them according to their role in the offense, seriousness of the offense and potential for rehabilitation. FAMM's 25,000 members include prisoners and their families, attorneys, judges, criminal justice experts and concerned citizens. For more information on FAMM, please visit our website, www.famm.org or email [email protected].




Thank you

unfortunately your not free to sell drugs.......NEXT:1orglaugh

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Number1Thumb
unfortunately your not free to sell drugs.......NEXT:1orglaugh [/QUOTE
Just the worst drug of all... Alcohol (by far responsible for more death and violence than all the illicit drugs combined):2 cents:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rambler

Quote:

Originally posted by Number1Thumb unfortunately your not free to sell drugs.......NEXT:1orglaugh [/QUOTE Just the worst drug of all... Alcohol (by far responsible for more death and violence than all the illicit drugs combined):2 cents:

once again irrelevant, sell drugs to police with gun=jail...BYE BYE:winkwink:

It's just to get the point across that selling something that is illegal is wrong. Marijuana will be legal before that 55 years is up.

How many of you goofballs are going to go on and on about the weed?

He isn't getting 55 years for selling weed! Selling weed is just how he got caught. All of the years are due to GUN CHARGES.

Usually you people hate guns. What's up?

they are stoned and couldnt see past the weed part of the story, its typical

End the war on drugs

let me make it easier for these idiots here

Angelos? mandatory 55 years is based on three firearms-related charges:for carrying a gun during two drug sales and for keeping additional
firearms at his apartment. Federal law require a five-year
mandatory-minimum sentence for the first charge and a 25-year term for each count
thereafter.

Also, it sounds like he's been busted for selling weed or other drugs at least 2 times prior. What else is on his record?

This guy is from Utah. Obviously not the sharpest cookie.

ya the mandatory minimum worked fine in this incident. Lock the idiot up, good bye

That's just what the story was titled. Still, he didn't do anything with the gun, he just had it on him. 55 years for carrying a gun is pretty fucked up, IMHO.

I do agree that the charges seem pretty crazy, specifically because of what the judge stated. But pawning this off on weed is silly because weed had very little to do with it.

So you think the sentence is appropriate because he had a gun on him?

I know whining about stupid laws on GFY isn't gonna do anything but I just finished squeezing one out and now have nothing better to do.

Unless the cop was wired, he could have pulled out the gun and shot him, ditched the weed, then claim whatever reason for shooting the person he "didn't know was a cop" and got half the time on manslaughter. That's pretty sad. Judges should have 100% control over sentences and let the appeals processes keep checks and balances on unfair sentences.:(

Obviously if it was just the drugs it would be fucked up but this guy is obviously into drugs and drugs kill...

you are about as sharp as that guy. Yes being busted TWICE selling drugs with concealed firearms and more illegal firearms at the house, are you really this dumb? :1orglaugh

I gotta admit, usually im one of the liberal hippies crying its unjust... but that nigga got what he deserved. I've always said "the law was there before he committed the crime". He knew what he was doing was illegal, he knew the penalties were stiff, and he still got caught. Lock him up and throw out the key, more press will mean more dealers will hear about his punishment and hopefully some of them will give their head a shake and re-exaluate their role in soceitey.

I dont really care if anyone smokes weed or not, but I do think dealers should be punished heavily, they dont pay any taxes, they obviously have no moral problems with selling drugs to kids, they dont contribute to society in any way, etc.

It's a victimless crime. No one was deprived of their life, liberty or property. Hence, it is an unjust law.

totally reasonable, 3 firearms convictions=jail BYE BYE

Read the story, this is his first offense.

weed is god's gift to man. nobody should goto jail for it period.

Idiot. :2 cents:

im done arguing with a brain dead idiot such as yourself, you are just so clueless.

please..like it make it alright... every good ole american boy carry a weapon... Isnt what gun owners/activists always claim.. a gun is necesarry to protect yourself... Isnt selling drug kinda dangerous!?

At least these stories make me happy that I don't live in the U.S.:)

Could have. I could have gotten drunk last night and fucked the mayor's wife with a dildo wrapped in barbed wire, but I didn't. The point is, "could have" means squat. You can't punish someone for a crime that they "could have" committed. Law enforcement by its nature is something that happens after a crime is committed, not before.

You TOTALLY missed the point he was making.

Read the story, this is his first offense.

No one was deprived of life, liberty or property, so what crime was committed? A law, so what? There are lots of laws that need to go away. Laws that punish victim-less crimes need to go away.

The story wasn't written the greatest.

55 years for carrying a gun? In the US? The land of gun owners..!?

So you should be able to sell drugs, with a concealed firearm as long as noone is hurt? :1orglaugh

He was talking about what that guy "could have" done with that gun to the cop.

He then made a seperate point about how judges should have 100% control over sentencing. It seems to me that I got it, I just didn't comment on the sencond clause because I don't disagree with it.

ya whats the problem? No carry conceal permit, in the commission of a crime. DUH

you should be able? On what planet are you? The debate here is about the 55 years...

Unfortunately there are too many brain-dead idiots in the states that like to impose their bullshit beliefs upon others regardless of the irrationality and unjust consequences.

Holy fuck that's absolutely trerrible. Murderers get off easy, but a pety crime goes over punished. Nice. 10 years should have sufficed.

america land of the free to do what your told.

"an airplane hijacker would get
24 years. A bomb-detonating terrorist would get a 19-year sentence. A
three-time child rapist would get 15 years."

lol.. why am I even replying to an air head like you...