Ex-Attorneys General: Cut Convict's Term

[Rose Siding]

DENVER Jun 22, 2005 — A day after U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended mandatory federal sentencing laws, four of his predecessors filed a court brief Wednesday saying a Utah drug dealer received an unconstitutionally long prison term.

More than 150 other ex-Justice Department officials also signed the "friend of the court" brief with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which seeks to overturn a 55-year sentence given to a man for carrying a pistol during a string of marijuana deals.

Weldon Angelos, 25, of Salt Lake City, was convicted in 2003 of three counts of possessing a firearm while involved in a drug deal, as well as 13 other drug and money-laundering charges. He had no prior convictions.
...
Signing the brief were former attorneys general Janet Reno, Benjamin Civiletti, Griffin Bell and Nicholas Katzenbach; former FBI director William S. Sessions; and numerous other former prosecutors and judges.

"The main thing is that it is a case in which the result is so startling that everybody just agreed that it should not be something that should be tolerated in a humane society," said John Martin Jr., a former U.S. attorney and district judge who also signed the brief.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=872852&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[indepat]

1. Hell, 55 years ain't so bad: didn't Mollie indicate in one of her books

one could get a maximum 95 years for simple possession of marijuana in Texas back in the good ole days?

[Trillo]

2. It's heartening to read that people with experience in the legal

system are standing up to the gross iniquities in our system of justice.

Where these efforts will go remains to be seen.

[indepat]

3. We should take comfort this is the land of the free and equal justice for

all, but sadly we can't.