Welcoming Judge Cassell's Resignation
Sentencing Law and Policy first reported yesterday that Judge Paul Cassell of Utah is resigning from the federal bench to return to teaching and litigating on behalf of crime victims.
That's fine by me. His agenda has always been promoting victims' rights over those of defendants, eviscerating Miranda rights and pushing the death penalty, making light of false confessions and wrongful convictions.
That he wrote a good opinion in a child porn case finding application of the sentencing guidelines unconstitutional in that case, doesn't make up for the rest. He urged in another case that the guidelines be followed in all but exceptional cases and while he criticized the mandatory minimum 55 year sentence for Weldon Angelos, a 25 year old drug dealer, he imposed it anyway. (The Supreme Court later let the sentence stand.)
I bear no ill will towards Judge Cassell, but I'm glad he's going.
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