Let judges judge: Congress should end mandatory-minimum sentencing

Paul Cassell is obviously haunted by a ruling he made as a U.S. district judge in 2004 that sent a small-time Utah drug dealer to prison for 55 years. And for good reason.

Cassell was forced to follow the senseless dictates of the federal mandatory-minimum sentencing law in the case of Weldon Angelos, who was caught selling marijuana with a gun in his pocket. The judge said at the time that the sentence was "unjust and irrational."

Now chairman of the Committee on Criminal Law of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Cassell made an example of the Utah case as he urged a House judiciary subcommittee to make sentencing more fair. His testimony outlined a series of steps the committee is supporting that would put responsibility for deciding punishment back in the hands of trial judges, where it belongs.

We support the committee's recommendations and urge Congress to implement them.

Current mandatory-minimum sentencing laws eliminate a federal judge's discretion to mete out a sentence that fits the crime. They make the judge a mere rubber stamp for lawmakers who have neither heard the case nor are qualified to assess the particular circumstances or degree of criminal intent.

After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that judges should view federal sentencing guidelines as advisory only, the committee wisely grabbed the chance to urge Congress to do more to preserve the role of judges, eliminating "irrational" mandatory-minimums and rejecting proposed "topless" sentencing guidelines that would allow judges to impose harsher sentences than are called for in the guidelines. The panel also asked that judges be given greater authority to monitor dangerous defendants and latitude to demand restitution and prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes.

The American Bar Assocation firmly opposes mandatory-minimum sentencing. In Utah, we have seen the wisdom of indeterminate sentencing, which allows judges to consider the unique circumstances of each crime and to give criminals an incentive to get their act together to shorten their prison stays.

Considering all the evidence, it's time the legislative branch backed off and let judges do the judging.