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Angry Rosenthal Pot Jurors Call For New Trial
(Ann Harrison, AlterNet, February 5, 2003)
In an extraordinary condemnation of federal drug war tactics, five jurors who convicted medical cannabis grower Ed Rosenthal of federal marijuana cultivation and conspiracy charges, held a press conference yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 4) to apologize and to call for a new trial. . . . The jurors said they were outraged to discover that Rosenthal had been deputized by the city of Oakland, Calif. to grow medical cannabis for patients under California's Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215). The judge denied all but two of Rosenthal's defense witnesses, including the Oakland city attorney who drafted the legal immunity provisions for the city's medical marijuana program. . . . Defense lawyers made repeated attempts to inform jurors during the trial that Rosenthal was a medical cannabis grower who had been promised immunity from prosecution. But U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer blocked every effort . . . Eight of the 14 sitting jurors condemned the verdict. This included one of the two alternate jurors who did not vote, and two jurors who were not present. At the courthouse press conference, jurors and city officials offered their condemnation and apologies. "It is the most horrible mistake I have ever made," said juror Marney Craig, a 58-year-old property manager who voted to convict. "I feel like we were sheep, we were manipulated." . . . "Both the jury and I were victims of vicious persecution by an illegal government action," said Rosenthal. He said that prosecutor George Bevan, "persecuted me to shut down the medical marijuana movement – he lost. I have no regret for helping thousands of patients get their own medicine." . . . One of the jurors who spoke against the verdict was Pam Klarkowski, a registered nurse who said she has attended to at least one medical marijuana patient. Klarkowski acknowledged that medical cannabis provides effective relief for cancer and AIDS patients, and said that convicting growers makes it more difficult for them to get their medicine. "I do apologize to Ed and his family and to all the patients for whom this will make their lives very difficult," said Klarkowski. "I feel as if we were ramrodded in a way, and not given all the evidence involved to make an educated decision." . . . Craig said she and her fellow jurors had no idea that they had power to disregard the federal law, because the judge never told them. . . . Jury foreman Charles Sackett, who described himself as a conservative person who would rather be home pruning his roses, said Rosenthal's trial left him questioning the judicial system for the first time in his life.

[Comment: ATTENTION JURORS, you do NOT have to follow a judges instructions. You have a right to take it upon yourselves to be the judge of both facts AND THE LAW, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy. No matter what instructions a judge gives you, vote for acquittal whenever you believe in your heart that the defendant should go free. That is your right, AND YOUR DUTY, as a juror.

posted by LoZo 11:41 AM