Pot guru asks court to overturn convictionBut:
Attorneys for Oakland pot advocate Ed Rosenthal asked a panel of federal judges today to overturn his 2003 conviction for growing medical marijuana, while the prosecutors sought to have his one-day prison sentence thrown out because they thought it wasn’t long enough.
Rosenthal, 60, was arrested in 2002 for growing marijuana for the Harm Reduction Center, a San Francisco dispensary for medical patients. Rosenthal, who is well-known for his “Ask Ed” advice column for cannabis growers, was convicted a year later on federal cultivation and conspiracy charges.
But in his trial U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer forbid Rosenthal and his attorney from mentioning that he was growing cannabis for medical users. Breyer ruled that since medical use is not allowed under federal law that evidence was irrelevant to his guilt or innocence.
Meanwhile, assistant U.S. Attorney Amber Rosen argued that Rosenthal’s conviction should remain in place, but that Breyer should have sentenced Rosenthal from two to five years in prison under federal guidelines. Rosen said the one-day sentence “was an abuse of judicial discretion.”
Yes, so nice to know that our government has priorities. Must stop the evil weed from being used for medicinal purposes, unless of course, Pfizer figures out how to make a prescriptive THC pill, available only at your local pharmacy. Until that day, the Federal government is devoting countless hours and innumerable resources to stamping out the rights of any citizen that deigns to consider cannabis as anything other than a demon plant.
Nine of 12 of the jurors who voted to convict Rosenthal have since disavowed their guilty verdict after learning that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana. Attorneys Dennis Riordan and Joe Elford argued Tuesday that Breyer should have allowed Rosenthal to present a defense that he grew the marijuana solely for medical use with the permission of Oakland city officials, who were acting within the parameters of the state’s medical marijuana law. “It’s an affirmative defense based on the conclusion that somebody was reasonably misled by public officials,” Riordan said. “He had a Sixth Amendment right to present that defense to a jury.” They also argued that Breyer improperly restricted the jury’s options by urging jurors to follow the law and not bring their own “sense of justice” into their deliberations. Rosenthal said his actions were authorized by California’s medical marijuana law and also said he had been deputized by the city of Oakland to supply marijuana to a city-endorsed patient cooperative.Rosenthal said outside court that he was more than happy to risk possible prison time if a new trial is ordered and he is convicted. It is more important to keep fighting to clear his name and support the cause of “sick and dying people who need marijuana,” he said.
article via the essential read, Drug War Rant, by Peter Guither
It's a shame the people of California want cannabis sativa legal, we receive a small amount of cents per dollar sent to D.C. and then we have to pay for the feds to go against what we voted for. But wait a minute, we didn't vote for ... nevermind.