cannabisnews.com: Commute This Sentence Commute This Sentence Posted by CN Staff on December 09, 2006 at 09:22:20 PT Editorial Source: Washington Post Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court this week declined to review the case of Weldon Angelos, leaving in place his obscene sentence of 55 years in prison for small-time marijuana and gun charges. The high court's move is no surprise; the justices have tended to uphold draconian sentences against constitutional challenge. But it confronts President Bush with a question he will have to address: Is there any sentence so unfair that he would exert himself to correct it? So far, Mr. Bush hasn't found one. He has commuted only two sentences, both of inmates who were about to be released anyway. Mr. Angelos, by contrast, is a young man and a first-time offender who is now likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. His crime? He sold $350 in marijuana to a government informant three times -- and carried, but did not display, a gun on two of those occasions. Police found other guns and pot at his house. The U.S. district judge who sentenced him in Utah, Paul G. Cassell, declared the mandatory sentence in this case "unjust, cruel, and even irrational." He noted that it is "far in excess of the sentence imposed for such serious crimes as aircraft hijacking, second degree murder, espionage, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and rape." And in an extraordinary act, he explicitly called on Mr. Bush to use his clemency powers to offer what he as a judge could not: justice. Judge Cassell recommended that Mr. Bush commute the sentence to 18 years, which he described as "the average sentence recommended by the jury that heard this case." Mr. Bush put Judge Cassell on the bench. As a law professor before that, he was a staunch advocate of tough justice; his chief claim to fame, in fact, was having pressed the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark Miranda decision requiring police to read criminal suspects their constitutional rights. His exceptional discomfort with this case -- and his passionate plea for presidential mercy -- ought to carry weight even with a president so disinclined to use the powers the Constitution gives him to remedy injustices.Note: A clemency case not even President Bush can ignore -- or can he?Source: Washington Post (DC)Published: Saturday, December 9, 2006; Page A18Copyright: 2006 Washington Post Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ CannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by ekim on December 09, 2006 at 18:34:47 PT US needs a Drug War Report with Leap on board "They have the strength of their own convictions. At one point in time they were just ordinary cops. Comment #2 They were just enforcing the law the way it was written. Something happened to change their minds. I think that in the process of that epiphany, if you will, they had to become stronger. It made them heroes, in my opinion," said Littlefield. "And that makes them very filmic, so I kind of exploited that. The guy's riding his horse across the country to protest the drug war.And the horse only has one eye. I mean, come on." [...]------Officer Howard J. Wooldridge (retired) Education Specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc) Washington, DC Hablo espanol, je parle francais Howard J. Wooldridge 1402 W. 7th Street Frederick, MD 21702 301-695-1739 817-975-1110 (cell) wooldridge leap.cc The mission of LEAP is to reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by whig on December 09, 2006 at 16:43:47 PT MikeEEEEE George Bush doesn't care about anyone but George Bush. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on December 09, 2006 at 13:38:36 PT 2.2 million Americans are in prison or jail! China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000....7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year....The U.S. incarceration rate of 737 per 100,000 people in the highest, followed by 611 in Russia and 547 for St. Kitts and Nevis. In contrast, the incarceration rates in many Western industrial nations range around 100 per 100,000 people...."The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens," said Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports alternatives in the war on drugs. U.S. has most prisoners in world due to tough laws [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 09, 2006 at 13:30:50 PT rchandar I think you are right. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by rchandar on December 09, 2006 at 12:40:31 PT: Bush... ...is a complete f-ing disaster. Here's a president who managed to win unconditionally complete international and national political consensus and then completely blow it, bring it to the realization of total foreign policy disaster and failure. Any president who had the kind of complete international cooperation and license and could ruin it--systematically, it seems, is a pretty bad example.Domestically, he will be remembered for performing "Animal Farm" type and explicit abolition of democratic principles and precedents. NO President has abused his power, not even Nixon or Reagan, as badly as Bush has. With Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton, abuses of power and anti-democratic practices were covert and were brought to justice or at least just scrutiny. Bush has usurped the Constitution, denied its unanimity, styled himself as a king or emperor. He's put the end of democracy IN WRITING. If unchallenged in the politics to continue, he will be remembered for initiating the END of American democracy. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by ekim on December 09, 2006 at 11:04:27 PT "Global is airing a 45-minute version this weekend Saturday, December 9, 2006 Must See TVTonight at 7 pm ET/PT on Global Television: Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey Article: IMAGINE A CANADA where marijuana is legal and a prescription gets you a hit of heroin or cocaine. That's the proposal of Senator Larry Campbell, the former cop and mayor of Vancouver whose life inspired the Da Vinci's Inquest TV series. Such controversial and contrarian views are at the heart of the provocative Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey, airing Saturday at 7 p.m. on Global as part of the Global Currents series of documentaries. [...]"It's the hypocrisy of it that really appals me. I just can't quite figure out how we can call ourselves an enlightened society and still turn a blind eye to something that seems to be doing so much damage yet it would be so simply cured if only we would come to terms with our own feelings about substances." Damage Done depicts many people who have wrestled with their stance on forbidden substances, most notably members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The group claims about 5,000 members and anyone can join, but LEAP was founded by police veterans who gradually concluded that the traditional war on drugs was illogical. [...]"They have the strength of their own convictions. At one point in time they were just ordinary cops. They were just enforcing the law the way it was written. Something happened to change their minds. I think that in the process of that epiphany, if you will, they had to become stronger. It made them heroes, in my opinion," said Littlefield. "And that makes them very filmic, so I kind of exploited that. The guy's riding his horse across the country to protest the drug war. What's more filmic than that. And the horse only has one eye. I mean, come on." [...]Tenacity also paid off in securing an interview with former New York City cop Frank Serpico. His one-man crusade against dirty cops was made into a classic '70s movie starring Al Pacino. "He's not a member of LEAP officially, although he totally supports them. He's just not a joiner, really, as you might think," said Littlefield. "I'm talking to him about potentially making another documentary about the roots of police corruption." [...]"Global is airing a 45-minute version this weekend. There's also a 54-minute version which includes a couple of other American characters and that is what we refer to as the NFB version. It's hopefully going to be distributed all over the world and through the NFB's resources in North America and hopefully you'll even be able to buy your own copy one day." http://www.drugwarrant.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by MikeEEEEE on December 09, 2006 at 10:14:30 PT George Bush GW Bush is the child of leisure. He is used to getting what he wants, and is very spoiled. Bush, family and friends think they're above everyone else, the way kings of the past were. I can go on, but you get the point. There is one standard for us, and one for them. Example: The Bush twins were caught in Florida on prescription drug charges. They were not imprisoned and charges were dropped. Other citizens are not so lucky that there father is the President, and the governor is their uncle.The bottom line is: They don't give a crap about you unless it benefits them. If you have some black gold, that's a different story.The outlook: Bush has another 2 years to destroy America, in the same way he ran 99% of the businesses he was involved with, INTO THE GROUND.History may record GW Bush as the worst President ever, that's if we survive another 2 years of this creature. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment