POT-SALE CASE PUTS FOCUS ON MANDATORY SENTENCES

For a first offense, a Utahn got 55 years in prison. A Circuit Court
appeal says that's unconstitutional.

Weldon Angelos was a part-time rap producer in Salt Lake City who had
a gun when he sold small amounts of marijuana to an informant on two
occasions.

When police took him down in 2002, they also found guns at his house.
For this, the first-time offender got 55 years in prison, far more
than he would have gotten if he had been convicted of hijacking a
plane, kidnapping or second-degree murder.

On Tuesday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver, will
hear arguments on the constitutionality of the lengthy prison term,
the result of mandatory-minimum sentencing laws that are triggered
when a dealer possesses a gun.

The Angelos case has drawn national attention in the debate over who
is best suited to craft appropriate criminal penalties: legislators
who pass mandatory-minimum sentencing laws or the judges who hear the
cases.

"I think this could be arguably the harshest sentence ever imposed in
this sort of situation," said Douglas Berman, an Ohio State University
law professor who specializes in sentencing law.

"The more that cases like Weldon Angelos' come into the public eye,
the more we'll have an understanding that mandatory-minimum sentencing
laws are about politics and not sound policy," Berman said.

Still, many administration officials, members of Congress and
conservative scholars support mandatory minimums as a way to deter
crime, ensure sentence uniformity and rein in judges they believe to
be lenient.

"Mandatory minimums also frequently induce cooperation of the
defendant," said David Muhlhausen, a senior policy analyst for the
Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington,
D.C. "Basically, they're used as a big stick to get offenders to
cooperate with prosecutors."

In Angelos' case, his penalty was greatly amplified by the pistol he
had in his car when he sold 8 ounces of marijuana on one occasion and
the gun he had in an ankle holster during another deal. Authorities
who searched his home also found weapons there, the basis for a third
gun charge.

Though Angelos never fired or even brandished the weapons in selling
the marijuana, his gun possession kicked in mandatory minimums
requiring a five-year sentence and two 25-year sentences, all to run
consecutively.

At trial in 2003, Angelos was convicted of 16 gun, drug and money-
laundering charges.

Without the gun charges, he would have served six to eight years in
prison for the drug charges. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an expert
agency created by Congress, would add two years for the firearms
possession under the same circumstances, according to a written order
by the judge in the Angelos case.

The Utah federal judge who sentenced Angelos in 2004 agonized over the
decision in a 67-page order in which he called upon the president to
commute the sentence and encouraged Congress to address the laws.

"The court believes that to sentence Mr. Angelos to prison for the
rest of his life is unjust, cruel and even irrational," wrote U.S.
District Judge Paul Cassell.

There was no choice but to follow the law, Cassell said.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Congress and many state legislatures passed
laws forcing judges to give certain terms to people convicted of
specific crimes, mostly drug crimes.

Most of the federal mandatory minimums came out of a 1986 bill passed
by Congress.

The most common penalty was a mandatory five-or 10-year prison term
based on the amount of drugs involved in the crime or the presence of
a gun, according to a report by Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a
nonprofit campaigning to change the laws.

Angelos' plight has drawn the support of 29 former judges and
prosecutors who filed a "friend of the court" brief saying the
sentence shows how mandatory minimums can violate constitutional
protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

"I can't believe that any rational person in Congress would look at
this sentence and say that it's just," said John S. Martin Jr., a
former federal judge and U.S. attorney in New York who signed the brief.

Prosecutors in the case who are fighting Angelos' appeals said in a
brief that Angelos was affiliated with a violent street gang,
trafficked in "enormous quantities" of high-grade marijuana and made
far more money dealing in drugs than he did producing music.

They contend the sentence is "not grossly disproportionate to his
offenses," according to a brief filed in the appellate case.

The Department of Justice has expressed support for mandatory minimum
sentences.

"They deter certain types of criminal behavior determined by Congress
to be sufficiently egregious as to merit harsh penalties by clearly
forewarning the potential offender and the public at large of the
minimum potential consequences," Jodi L. Avergun, U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration chief of staff, said in congressional
testimony this year.

Angelos' lawyers say he is one of the many people disproportionately
punished by mandatory minimums.

Angelos, 26, remains in prison in California as his appeals make their
way through the court system. His sister, Lisa Angelos, said her
family was stunned by the harsh sentence.

She remembers sitting in the courtroom and hearing the judge's words
but being unable to comprehend that her brother would be going to
prison for what amounted to a life sentence.

Weldon Angelos is scheduled to be released when he is 78 years
old.

"It was like he died," said Lisa Angelos, 27, a student who lives near
Salt Lake City.

Her brother started Extravagant Records and worked with prominent
musicians, including Snoop Dogg. He is married and has three children,
Lisa Angelos said. The Angelos family, she said, holds out hope that
the sentence will be reduced.

Frank O. Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor who has
followed the case, said he isn't optimistic about Angelos' chances.

Bowman said the U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to define when
the length of a prison term violates constitutional protections
against cruel and unusual punishment.

In addition, Bowman doesn't see how members of Congress could
withstand the political pressure that would come with easing mandatory
minimums.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave judges discretion in
applying federal sentencing guidelines served to re-energize
legislators who think judges are too lenient in sentencing.

"Congress is more enamored of mandatory minimums than ever," Bowman
said.

[sidebar]

STIFF PUNISHMENT

Examples of Mandatory Minimums That Resulted in Harsh Sentences:

Tammi R. Bloom was a 32-year-old mother of two in Miami who worked
full time as a licensed practical nurse and attended nursing classes
in 1992. She was sentenced in federal court to 19 years and seven
months for her marginal role in a cocaine conspiracy. The case hinged
on drugs found at a home that her husband was sharing with his
mistress. The mistress and the husband received shorter sentences.
Bloom had no prior criminal record.

Lamont and Lawrence Garrison, 25-year-old twin brothers from
Washington, D.C., were found guilty of drug trafficking in 1998.
Lamont was sentenced to 19 years in prison and Lawrence to 15. Their
conviction was based largely on the testimony of a confessed drug
dealer who, in exchange, received a three-year sentence. No evidence
of drug dealing or drug paraphernalia was found. Before their arrests,
the Garrisons had worked part time for years to pay their tuition at
Howard University. They were both excellent students and received
their degrees while awaiting trial. They had planned to be lawyers.

Monica Clyburn, a mother of four, was sentenced to 15 years in federal
prison in 1996 after providing thumbprint identification in the
Florida pawnshop sale of her boyfriend's gun. Because her boyfriend
was not carrying identification at the time of the sale, she provided
her identification to complete the transaction. Clyburn, previously
convicted for selling $60 worth of rock cocaine to an undercover
officer, was a felon and by law not allowed to possess a firearm. She
did not own the gun and claimed to have never touched it, but because
she was a convicted felon and provided identification for the sale,
she was found to be in illegal possession of a firearm.

Kevin Elders, the son of former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, was
sentenced by an Arkansas court to 10 years in prison in 1994 for
selling an eighth of an ounce of cocaine. The cocaine was worth
approximately $275, and it was Elders' first offense. The law required
that Elders be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years. He could have been
sentenced to life. He has since been released from prison.

Clarence Aaron, a 23-year-old college student with no previous
criminal history, was sentenced by a federal court in Alabama in 1993
to three life sentences without parole for his role in setting up a
1992 drug deal that netted him $1,500. He was convicted based on
testimony from childhood friends, all drug dealers. All received
reduced sentences for their testimony. All except Aaron have since
been released from prison.