There's something wrong with a federal sentencing scheme that a federal judge — in imposing sentence — condemns as "unjust, cruel and irrational."
But U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said he had no choice but to sentence 25-year-old Weldon Angelos, a first-time drug offender, to 55 years and one day in federal prison under federal mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines. Cassell took the unusual step to ask President Bush to commute Angelos' sentence to a term more in line with his crime and called on Congress to revisit the mandatory-minimum law that required a prison term of more than half a century.
Some legal observers believed that Cassell might declare the mandatory-minimum sentencing laws that governed Angelos sentencing unconstitutional, but the judge said he had no choice but to abide by the federal statutes. Angelos' attorney plans to appeal. If that effort is unsuccessful, Angelos, the founder of the Utah-based rap music label Extravagant Records, won't be eligible for release until age 80.
It is disturbing when the law is such that a judge describes the sentence he is required to impose as "Draconian." While Congress intended the mandatory-minimum sentences as a means to get tough on crime, particularly those that mix drugs and firearms, the result has been to strip judges of their ability to judge.
In Angelos' case, his 55-year sentence was based on three firearms charges for carrying a gun during two marijuana sales and for keeping additional firearms at his Fort Union apartment. Had the case been tried in state court, Angelos would have faced five to seven years in prison, according to his attorney. Instead, Angelos has been handed a federal prison term twice as long as the prescribed minimum sentences for terrorists, murderers and rapists. What is the rational basis for that?
As we have noted before, Weldon Angelos was tried and convicted of federal drug offenses. Because drug abuse overlaps into so many other aspects of society, stringent criminal penalties are appropriate. But the punishment needs to fit the crime.