Attorneys for Angelos vow to keep fighting sentence

Attorneys for a 26-year-old man, convicted and sentenced to serve 55 years for selling marijuana with a firearm, said they will keep fighting the sentence and expect to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We're a long ways from done," said Jerome Mooney, attorney for convicted drug dealer and aspiring rap producer Weldon Angelos. "We're not ready to roll over and quit."

Mooney said he was disappointed when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the 55-year conviction of Angelos under a federal minimum-mandatory sentence guideline set out by Congress for those who are caught dealing drugs while in possession of a firearm.

The case has become a rallying point for opponents of federal minimum-mandatory sentences. University of Utah law professor Erik Luna, who argued as co-council with Mooney before the 10th Circuit last November, said 55 years for a first-time drug offense is not what the minimum-mandatory law was supposed to do -- it was supposed to target big-time drug dealers.

Sister Lisa Angelos said she heard the news about the ruling on her way home Monday evening and became so emotionally upset that she had to pull over and throw up. She said her family has dealt with repeated disappointment.

"It's pretty devastating," she said. "First we had the trial, then we had the sentencing and then we had the appeal. It's like I lost my brother three times."

Angelos was convicted by a federal jury in 2004 for selling small amounts of marijuana to an undercover officer. During two of those deals, Angelos had a gun in his possession. Luna argued that the U.S. Sentencing Commission deemed such crimes as worthy of a six- year sentence, and if the prosecutors had avoided stacking the sentences, it could have given Angelos a five-year mandatory sentence.

U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell noted his concern for the sentencing guidelines when he sentenced Angelos, calling the sentence he felt he was forced to impose "unjust, cruel and irrational."

But the three-judge panel of appellate judges disagreed, saying it was Congress' intent to "severely punish criminals who repeatedly possess firearms in connection with drug-trafficking crimes." The judges also stated they felt Cassell did not fully take into consideration Congress' intent for severe punishment for armed drug dealers.

Several legal figures echoed Cassell's concern, including a friend of the court "amicus" brief filed by former U.S. attorneys general Janet Reno, Benjamin Civiletti, Griffin Bell and Nicholas Katzenbach and nearly 160 other ex-Justice Department officials and federal judges.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner said unlike the description painted by his defenders, "Weldon Angelos is no choirboy."

As for the case going to he U.S. Supreme Court, Warner said the 10th Circuit sided with his office on every aspect of the case and there were no dissenting opinions. "Put a fork in this case because it's done," Warner said.

Despite representations that Angelos was a first-time offender, Warner pointed out that the appellate judges believed that Angelos' criminal record had more to do with luck than anything else.

"We perceive him as a mid- to high-level drug dealer," Warner said. "The reality is that he was a very prolific dealer in marijuana."

Luna called it disturbing that the 10th Circuit considered actions that Angelos was not charged or convicted on but added "we are far from over."

As for the long list of legal experts backing Angelos, Warner said many are former colleagues and friends that he worked with during the Clinton and Bush administrations. Warner said he feels the only reason they have sided with the defense in the case is because most of them are now in private practice and need to support the side that will benefit them, suggesting some were "paid to sign on to such briefs."

"It's their bread and butter now that they're in private practice," Warner said.

Mooney said he and other attorneys need time to analyze the ruling and decide what course of action to take. Among the choices will be to either petition the 10th Circuit to rehear the case, en- banc, or with all 12 judges rather than the usual panel of three. A second choice will be to petition directly to the U.S. Supreme Court to see if the nation's highest court will hear the case.

Mooney said he had yet to speak with Angelos from federal prison but did talk briefly with his family members about the case.

Warner said he personally has little sympathy for Angelos, since his office offered Angelos a plea bargain of just over 15 years, which he rejected for taking the case to trial.

Online legal journal to include opinion written by Cassell

The opinion penned by U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell, calling Weldon Angelos' sentence "unjust, cruel and irrational" has been selected to be published by an online legal journal under "Exemplary Legal Writing 2005."

The University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law announced Tuesday that "The Green Bag" plans to reprint Cassell's written opinion on mandatory sentencing at the end of the month in its Almanac and Reader 2006. "The Green Bag" is a revival of the original journal published from 1889 to 1914 by legal experts, including Ross Davies, associate professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, who is the journal's editor-in-chief.