Cassell was forced to impose the sentence on Weldon Angelos, the founder of the rap music label Extravagant Records, because Angelos twice had a gun in an ankle holster while selling small amounts of marijuana to undercover police.

"I have no choice," Judge Cassell said to Angelos in announcing the sentence. The judge described the sentence as "unjust, cruel, and even irrational" and urged Angelos to appeal his decision and ask President Bush for clemency once all appeals were exhausted.

Cassell also called on the U.S. Congress to repeal the law that made the sentence mandatory. He cited a case only two hours before Angelos' sentencing where he was legally required to impose only a 22-year sentence on a man convicted of aggravated second-degree murder for beating an elderly woman to death. That crime, said Cassell, was much more serious than the offenses committed by Angelos.

The case fuels the heated debate that questions the fairness of sending a minor drug dealer to prison for 55 years when a murderer, rapist, or terrorist, according to the same sentencing directives, receive no more than about 25 years.

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