NY Times: "55-Year Prison Term for Marijuana Upheld"

[AtomicKitten]

NY Times: Prison Term of 55 Years for Drugs Is Upheld
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: January 11, 2006


DENVER, Jan. 10 - A federal appeals court has upheld a 55-year prison term imposed on a Utah man with no criminal record who was convicted in 2003 of selling several hundred dollars worth of marijuana on three occasions.

The case of the man, Weldon H. Angelos, a record producer from Salt Lake City who was 22 at the time of his crime, has become a benchmark in the debate about sentencing rules and justice. The trial judge in the case complained in issuing the sentence, which was required by federal statutes, that he thought it excessive, and 29 former judges and prosecutors agreed, in a brief filed on Mr. Angelos's behalf.

But a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision issued here late Monday, rejected those arguments. The sentence properly reflected the will of Congress, the court said, and was not cruel or unusual punishment. Mr. Angelos was reported by a witness to have been armed with a pistol during two of the drug sales - and requiring stiffer sentences in cases where drugs and violence are linked, the court said, is legitimate social policy.

"Although the district court concluded that Angelos's sentence was disproportionate to his crimes, we disagree," the court said. "In our view, the district court failed to accord proper deference to Congress's decision to severely punish criminals who repeatedly possess firearms in connection with drug-trafficking crimes, and erroneously downplayed the seriousness of Angelos's crimes."


More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/national/11sentence.html

[PDJane]

1. That's just assinine.

50 odd years for marijuana?

How many prisons are going to be built in the US before the system gets reformed? How many people are going to be incarcerated for this kind of crime before the focus changes?

[Ken Burch]

2. This will keep happening

until "I'm tough on crime" stops being the phrase that pays at election time.

[Crazy Dave]

3. WHAT BULLSHIT!

A child rapist only gets only 60 days in Vermont.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?s=4325804

[NoAmericanTaliban]

4. Clear example of why the 'war on drugs' is bs

it is basically used to lock up minorities - initial pot laws were created to help drive out Mexicans in the southwest & Texas during the depression era. It also helps white rural areas by providing jobs in these prisons. Wonder if Ken Lay will get 55 years.

[SpiralHawk]

5. What Would Jesus Do?*

If he got arrested and sent away to a Corporate Crony Profit-Making NeoCon Slammer for annointing the sick with cannabis oil, as he did 2,000 years ago?



* Actually, the fundy Dominionist Crusaders ask the wrong question. In the original 18th century book to raise this question (In His Steps), the people asked themselves: "What would I do if I were the Christ?" Big difference -- shifts the emphasis from the Personality of one human being, to the larger Spirit that he said was in all of us: All that I do, you can do too, and greater things beyond (to paraphrase).

[Orrex]

6. Whew! I feel a lot safer with that dangerous criminal behind bars (n/t)

[LincolnMcGrath]

7. Somewhere Rush Limbaugh was heard laughing.......

[ismnotwasm]

8. Disgusting

Wasn't there a thread a couple of days ago about a man who got a 60 DAY sentence for raping a young girl?
Marijuana trafficking is dangerous BECAUSE it's illegal, not because of the marijuana. This is plain insanity.

I know a cocaine/heroin addict who held up a video store (armed robbery) The high end of his sentence was 12 fucking years. He got out in 7. He did well for a while, but is now using again, and although he isn't robbing anybody yet as far as I know, with his record (several prison sentences) it's a matter of time. I'll bet he doesn't get 55 years. (Acually we have the 3 strikes law, so he might get life, but I wouldn't count on it) So If he was selling a few kilo's of marijuana, he'd still be in prison, if you use this type of logic. Nice.

And I'm no marijuana apologist. Don't use it, have no interest using it, and no one (not trying to change the subject or high jack the thread, just putting my opinion in context)will ever convince me it's "harmless" But then neither is prozac, or oxycontin. Marijuana has definite benefits for certain health conditions,including ones that cause chronic pain, and/or anorexia, and a very calming influence on some people.

Why we have this insane bullshit is unfathomable. It's got to stop. I might have to join NORML even as a non-user.

[Pastiche423]

12. Of course no one will convince you

that pot is harmless. Your mind is closed w/o ever experiencing it.

I am paralyzed and have central pain. While I only smoke a pinch hitter bowl of pot at night before I go to bed to ease my fucked up neurological system, if I din't have that tiny amount, I'd blow my brains out from the pain.

It really ticks me off hearing it's not harmless from someone that knows shit about it.

[ismnotwasm]

13. Whoops!

Need to read my whole post! Hubby has MS, and although there are well documented benefits for Marijuana users and MS, he like me, choices not to imbibe. I know people who have very positive expericences with it, with a lot less side effects than traditional medicine.

I am very, very, very, very, very, very experienced in marijuana use. That is why no one is going to convience me it's harmless, because of my experience. It's also why I don't use it. But if it's doing you good, I'll fight for your right to use it.

Peace man, I'm really on your side!

[VolcanoJen]

9. Several hundred dollars worth?

Jesus... and you get 55 years for that? WTF?

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Idiotic Logic

Having a gun, and using it aren't the same thing. Remember "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." (Using their own terms.) So, if he didn't commit a violent act, the mere presence of a gun does not constitute violence.

The 10th circuit is simply towing the company line.
The Professor

[MadHound]

11. Goddamn War on Drugs!!!!!

:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

Let us essentially give this guy a life sentence because he sold what, a half pound or less of an herb that has been shown to be medically beneficial, and more harmless than alcohol(which is legal). Thank you Ronnie Ray gun for all of those mandatory sentences you started, and thank you Bill Clinton for expanding the use of mandatory sentences ten fold. Christ on a pogo stick, we're going to be throwing away a minimum of 1.5 million dollars on keeping this poor guy in prison, wow, what good could that money do if it didn't go down the rathole of prison life. Gee, ease somebody's hunger or pain, give some kids a good education, you name it. But nooooo, we have to pour it down the rathole known as the "prison industry"(and when did jail become the "prison industry anyway? I've always thought that a rather ominous development).

But hey, I suppose that on an ounce by ounce basis this guy is getting off light. I fellow here in Mid Mo got sent up for seven years for pocession of one joint, back in the bad ol' days of the late seventies.