Criminal Justice

Stand Together Trust to Host 2017 SXSW Panel on Criminal Justice Reform, Featuring Snoop Dogg and Weldon Angelos

March 6, 2017

How did a 25-year-old music producer become the face of criminal justice reform in the United States?

In 2002, Weldon Angelos, the founder of Utah-based record label Extravagant Records, was caught selling less than $1,000 worth of marijuana and was given the most severe mandatory sentence required by law: Fifty-five years in prison. Thanks to a nationwide campaign to bring attention to this unjust sentence, his prosecutor had a change of heart and Angelos was released from prison in the spring of 2016.

On March 18, Stand Together Trust will host a SXSW panel in Austin, Texas, with Angelos and his colleague and friend, award-winning rapper Snoop Dogg. They will speak directly to the music community, detailing how artists can work together to achieve lasting reform.

The panel, titled “Artist to Advocate: Fighting for Criminal Justice,” will also feature Stand Together Trust’s senior research fellow for criminal justice reform, Vikrant Reddy, and Koch Industries’ general counsel, Mark Holden.

Please stay tuned to standtogethertrust.org for further updates.