1. 800. 973.1177
COURT REPORTER
Lawful, Yes — But Just? [By James Kilpatrick] The facts in the case of Weldon Angelos are not in dispute: He really did sell 24 ounces of marijuana to an informant, and he really did carry a handgun when he did it.
The story can be summarized in a paragraph.
the firearm he carried and six years for the
grant review. The court’s concern, I know,
Four years ago, Angelos’ former girlfriend
marijuana. His post-trial poll of the jurors
is not with equity, but with law. The court
informed federal agents that he was selling
found them a little tougher: They would have
also values an appearance of stability, and
drugs at an address in Salt Lake City. Through
sentenced Angelos to a median term of 15
it spoke to the question of “disproportionate
an undercover agent, officers staged three
years.
sentences” in two relevant cases just three
separate buys of marijuana, then obtained
years ago.
a warrant for Angelos’ arrest. They seized
In an extensive appendix, the judge noted
$18,000 in cash and five handguns.
that the sentence imposed on the defendant for possessing the guns was longer than he
Indicted on four felony counts and two lesser
would have received for hijacking an airplane
charges, Angelos declined the prosecutor’s
or raping a 10-year-old child. The terrorist
bargain offer of 15 years and out. When he
who is convicted of detonating a bomb in
refused to plea, federal prosecutors piled
a public place and killing a bystander can
on 16 additional counts. Found guilty by a
expect less than 20 years.
jury, he was sentenced in November 2004 to
The two cases were Ewing v. California and Lockyer v. Andrade , both decided 5-4 and both involving serious repeat offenders. Gary Ewing, for example, appears in the law books as a truly incorrigible thief. In March 2000, while on parole from a nine-year prison term, he capped his career by stealing three golf clubs. At last he was hit with a sentence of 25 years to life.
55 years and a day in a federal prison. This
Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, writing for a
past January a panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit
unanimous panel of the 10th Circuit, was
unanimously affirmed that sentence. He
not impressed by Judge Cassell’s “cruel and
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor spoke for a
filed his appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court
unusual” argument. She cited five Eighth
badly fractured court in concluding that the
six weeks ago. If he is required to serve his
Amendment cases in the Supreme Court over
sentence was neither cruel nor unusual, i.e.,
full term, he will be free soon after his 82nd
the past 26 years in which sentences have
it was “not grossly disproportionate.” Justices
birthday.
been sustained of 40 years, 50 years or even
Scalia and Thomas sputtered unhappily
life for relatively petty cases of stealing or
in concurrence. The usual four dissented.
The question he has asked the high court to
dealing in drugs. Indeed, the Supreme Court
Since then Chief Justice Rehnquist has died
hear is not whether his punishment fits within
has reversed only two convictions under the
and Justice O’Connor has retired, so their
Chapter 18 of the U.S. Code. It fits. He asks
Eighth Amendment in the past hundred years.
successors might want to hear an appeal from a different defendant with a heap better
whether it fits within the Eighth Amendment: Is it both cruel and unusual? More tellingly,
Turning to Angelos himself, Judge Briscoe
I would ask, is it just? District Judge Paul G.
exposed a different side: He was “a known
Cassell, who presided over the jury trial, felt
gang member who had long used and sold
strongly that the long prison term could not
illicit drugs, a mid-to-high drug dealer
be justified, but under federal sentencing
who had purchased and in turn sold large
guidelines, he had no choice but to impose it.
quantities of marijuana.” He had failed as a musician. Presumably he was living off his
record. But don’t bet the ranch. (Letters to Mr. Kilpatrick should be sent by e-mail to kilpatjj@aol.com.) COPYRIGHT 2005 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
In a written opinion, Judge Cassell
trade in drugs. That he had not been arrested
This feature may not be reproduced or
sympathetically identified Angelos as a
“appears to have been the result of good
distributed electronically, in print or otherwise
first offender, a successful music executive
fortune.”
without the written permission of uclick and Universal Press Syndicate.
with two young children. “To sentence him to prison for the rest of his life is unjust,
Because I believe the draconian sentence
cruel and even irrational.” A fair sentence,
imposed upon a young first offender is wildly
he thought, would have been two years for
unjustified, I hope the Supreme Court will
PAGE