TOP COURT WON'T HEAR SALT LAKE MAN'S DRUG CASE

The nation's top court has let the 55-year mandatory sentence of a
Salt Lake man stand by refusing to hear his case.

The case of Weldon Angelos, who was sentenced to a mandatory 55 years
for selling marijuana, was among a list of cases released Monday that
the U.S. Supreme Court rejected for consideration, shocking many in
the legal field who say a constitutional review of minimum-mandatory
federal sentences is long overdue.

Attorneys representing Angelos expressed disappointment in the news,
calling it a "miscarriage of justice."

"We are extremely disappointed that the Supreme Court did not agree to
hear the case," University of Utah law professor Erik Luna said. "This
case presented a great opportunity for the Supreme Court not only to
correct this miscarriage of justice but also to clarify the scope of
the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment."

Many legal experts had hoped that Angelos' case would be the first
test case challenging mandatory sentences imposed by Congress. In this
case specifically, it was the heavy punishment handed down for those
who sell drugs with a firearm in their possession that
minimum-mandatory opponents hoped would be reviewed.

"We are very disappointed that the Supreme Court refused to hear this
case in which a low-level marijuana offender received what is
effectively a life sentence," said Jeff Sklaroff, an attorney
representing a group of 141 top former justice officials from across
the country, including four former U.S. attorneys general, a former
FBI director and other former federal judges and prosecutors who sided
with Angelos in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the court in
October.

"Even the judge who imposed the sentence found that it was 'cruel,
unjust and irrational,"' Sklaroff pointed out.

Angelos was convicted of selling 8-ounce bags of marijuana to an
undercover informant on three occasions. Because the informant later
testified that Angelos had a gun with him during two of the sales, a
federal mandatory law kicked in.

When Angelos was sentenced in 2002, U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell
issued a lengthy legal opinion, outlining his protest to a sentence
that could mean the 26-year-old could be well into his 70s before
being released.

Attorneys Troy Booher and Michael Zimmerman, a former chief justice of
the Utah Supreme Court, shared in the disappointment. "We hope that
Congress will realize the injustice caused by its mandatory-minimum
scheme and dispose of it without the court having to intervene," they
said in a statement.

Federal prosecutors said they were pleased with the high court's
decision, saying Angelos' sentence was in line with the will of
Congress and did not run afoul of Supreme Court precedent.

"We are pleased that the Supreme Court denied the petition," U.S.
Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said. "Congress has determined that
armed drug trafficking is a particularly serious offense that warrants
severe punishment."

Those close to the case say Angelos' options are very limited. Angelos
has the option of appealing his sentence and conviction in a "writ of
habeas corpus," but it would be reviewed by the same courts that have
upheld his sentence.

Angelos' only other option is to seek clemency through a presidential
pardon.

Angelos' family described him as an aspiring rap producer who is the
father of two children.

"I'm just not going to accept that it's the end," said sister Lisa
Angelos, who has fought to reduce her brother's sentence.

She said her family is still in shock from the news and many of them
do not feel like celebrating Christmas. "I'm not accepting that it's
the end," she said. "I won't, and I will do anything I can to bring
him home."