Weldon Angelos, a Utah music producer with no prior record, was sentenced on November 16, 2004, to 55 years in federal prison for selling about $350 worth of marijuana to a police informant while carrying a gun, a mandatory minimum the judge himself called unjust. After a long campaign that drew in a conservative senator, Charles Koch and Snoop Dogg, Angelos was released in 2016 after about 13 years, and President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon on December 22, 2020. His case became the best-known example of “stacked” gun charges in drug cases, a practice Congress limited in 2018.
In January 2013, The Weed Street Journal urged readers to sign a White House petition asking President Obama to pardon Angelos. This rewrite tells the whole story: the case, the sentence, the campaign and what changed afterward. For the wider history of federal drug sentencing, see our article on the state of the drug war.
What Happened
In 2002, a police informant made a series of controlled marijuana buys from Angelos in Utah. At the third buy, on June 18, 2002, Angelos sold eight ounces for $350, according to Judge Paul Cassell’s sentencing opinion in United States v. Angelos, 345 F. Supp. 2d 1227 (D. Utah 2004). The informant said Angelos had a handgun at the first two buys, though Angelos never used or showed it, and police found more guns at his home. Prosecutors offered a plea deal of about 15 years, which he turned down, according to accounts of the case.
A jury convicted Angelos on 16 of 20 counts, including marijuana distribution, money laundering, firearm offenses and three counts under 18 U.S.C. 924(c) of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime, according to the Solicitor General’s brief in the case. At the time, each 924(c) count after the first carried a mandatory 25 years, to run back to back, even when all the counts came in a single prosecution. That made the minimum for the gun counts 55 years: five for the first and 25 each for the second and third.
Cassell, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, wrote that he had no choice under the law. He sentenced Angelos to 660 months and one day, the 55 years plus one day on the remaining counts, called the sentence “unjust, cruel, and irrational,” and urged the president to commute it.
Background: The Campaign for Clemency
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the sentence on January 9, 2006, in United States v. Angelos, 433 F.3d 738, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. With the courts closed off, supporters turned to clemency. The 2013 White House petition our original post promoted needed 25,000 signatures by February 9, 2013, to get an official response; we could not find a record of whether it reached that number. In November 2013, 113 signers, including former judges and prosecutors, put their names to a letter organized by the Constitution Project asking Obama to commute the sentence, Reason reported. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Charles Koch, Alicia Keys and Snoop Dogg all backed his release.
What Happened Next
Obama never commuted the sentence. Instead, a federal court granted a sentence reduction in 2016, and Angelos walked out of prison at the end of May that year, after about 13 years, Fox 13 in Salt Lake City reported. The reasons were not made public because part of the case was sealed; the prosecutor who had charged him later worked to secure his release, according to accounts of the case.
In December 2018, the First Step Act changed the rule that had produced his sentence. Section 403 of the law limited the 25-year “second or subsequent” 924(c) penalty to people whose earlier 924(c) conviction was already final, ending the stacking of those counts within a single case for future defendants (S. 756, Congress.gov).
On December 22, 2020, Trump granted Angelos a full pardon for his drug, firearm and money laundering convictions, according to the Justice Department’s pardon records. Angelos went on to run The Weldon Project, which raises money for people still imprisoned for cannabis through its Mission Green campaign and lobbies for clemency.
Legacy
Angelos’s case is still cited in debates over mandatory minimums because the numbers are so stark: a first offender received a longer sentence than many people convicted of violent crimes, for selling an amount of marijuana that is now legal to possess in 24 states and D.C. The First Step Act’s fix was not retroactive, so people sentenced before December 2018 under stacked 924(c) counts did not automatically benefit. Marijuana for adult use remains a Schedule I drug under federal law, even after an April 2026 order moved state-licensed medical marijuana to Schedule III. Read more in our federal marijuana law guide, our Utah marijuana laws guide and our cannabis news section.
Weldon Angelos FAQ
Why did Weldon Angelos get 55 years?
He was convicted of three counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime under 18 U.S.C. 924(c), tied to marijuana sales. The mandatory minimums, 5 years for the first count and 25 for each of the next two, had to run consecutively.
When was Weldon Angelos released?
At the end of May 2016, after about 13 years in prison, when a federal court granted a sentence reduction.
Was Weldon Angelos pardoned?
Yes. President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon on December 22, 2020.
Who was the judge in the Angelos case?
U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell of Utah, who imposed the mandatory sentence in 2004 while calling it unjust and asking the president to commute it.
Did the law change after his case?
Yes. The First Step Act of 2018 ended the stacking of 25-year 924(c) penalties within a single case for future defendants.
Originally reported by The Weed Street Journal; rewritten and updated in October 2026 with what happened next.
