Former Federal Judge Regrets 55-Year Marijuana Sentence

The war on drugs has brought many dissapointing and unnecessary problems to our country. One that has effected millions of lives is the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes. One particular case is of a man named Weldon Angelos who is currently 11 years into his 55 year sentence for just 3 marijuana sales. Not only is his family working with Families Against Mandatory Minimums to change such policies, but even the federal judge who sentenced him knows he did not deserve to waste most of his life away in prison.

"I do think about Angelos,” said Paul Cassell, a now-retired federal judge in the Utah circuit. “I sometimes drive near the prison where he’s held, and I think, ‘Gosh he shouldn’t be there. Certainly not as long as I had to send him there. ... That wasn’t the right thing to do. The system forced me to do it.”