cannabisnews.com: CNN Transcripts: NewsNight with Aaron Brown





CNN Transcripts: NewsNight with Aaron Brown
Posted by CN Staff on February 06, 2003 at 21:44:00 PT
Partial Transcripts: Ed Rosenthal 
Source: CNN.com
BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT: the clash of marijuana laws and the man caught in the middle. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: I always want to comment on that, but I don't get them all.
The next story is two great debates wrapped up in one story. The debate on the surface dates back a few decades: whether sick people should have legal access to marijuana. But the debate underneath dates back a few centuries: just how much the federal government in Washington can tell the people out in the states what to do. In California, one man is caught up in both debates. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BROWN (voice-over): Ed Rosenthal is a drug dealer. That is true. But the real question is different: Is he a criminal? The federal government tried and convicted him last week of growing and selling marijuana, and he did both. Still, in California, many, many people, including local prosecutors, see him not as a criminal, but as a victim. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must not let this verdict stand. BROWN: Rosenthal was growing pot with the full knowledge of the city of Oakland. They were partners in getting medical marijuana to sick people, legal in the state, but against federal law. And the feds made an example of Ed Rosenthal. ED ROSENTHAL, MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE: It's a terrible situation when a citizen, conducting business, being told that what he's doing is legal, is then arrested for it. It can happen to anybody. BROWN: To win their case, federal prosecutors had only to prove that Rosenthal grew and sold the drug. The jury was never told, and the judge barred the defense from telling them, that the pot was sanctioned by the city and the state and intended only for those who are sick. Under federal law, the reasons didn't matter. TIMOTHY LYNCH THE CATO INSTITUTE: The DEA and federal prosecutors have very grandiose ideas about how far federal jurisdiction extends. They will say that it extends to all drug cases, no matter how small they are, no matter how local in scope. BROWN: What the jury didn't know in the trial, it learned immediately after the verdict. And many of those jurors felt cheated, denied the entire picture of the case. CHARLES SACKETT, JUROR: I ask myself how I could have allowed myself to juror in such a case where the outcome was so deliberately stacked against state rights and patient rights from the beginning. MARNEY CRAIG, JUROR: We were sent into the jury room with half the evidence and expected to come up with a fair and just verdict. This did not happen. CROWD: Ed, we love you.(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: And Ed Rosenthal joins us tonight from San Francisco. It's good to have you with us. Was the jury -- did prosecutors tell the jury why they thought you were selling this marijuana, by the way? ROSENTHAL: No, they didn't. They didn't feel that they needed to. They just had to prove that I was growing the marijuana. BROWN: OK, so they didn't present a theory that you were just some street drug dealer. They let jurors think whatever they thought. ROSENTHAL: That's right. It really didn't matter to them. Just the fact that I was growing it was enough. BROWN: And you're sitting there in this trial and this is going on. Didn't you want to get up and scream, hey, wait a second; there's a small fact you don't know, or several? ROSENTHAL: Well, we thought that the judge would allow some of our evidence in. We were really disappointed when the court decided that we couldn't present any of our evidence. It was very frustrating. BROWN: And they didn't know that you worked with the city of Oakland. And, in fact, is there not within even federal law an area where, if you are an agent of the government, you are exempt, essentially, from some of these drug laws? ROSENTHAL: Yes. That's a provision of the federal law. It's 18-USC -- Title 18 USC-885(d). And that exempt officers of the city from criminal activities when they're carrying out health and safety regulations. BROWN: And you would argue, and I gather Oakland would support the argument, that you were an agent of the city? ROSENTHAL: Yes. As a matter of fact, the assistant attorney for Oakland testified at the hearings that I was an officer of the city and that I should be exempt. BROWN: And the judge did not allow that testimony before the jury either? ROSENTHAL: That's right. BROWN: Because? ROSENTHAL: Well, he said that she wasn't a federal officer, so she wasn't authorized to make that determination. And when we tried to bring a federal officer into the court, the judge quashed the subpoena. BROWN: Where do you go from here? You appeal this, certainly, right, to the 9th Circuit? ROSENTHAL: Well, yes. We think that there were a lot of improprieties, both in the grand jury actions, as well as in the trial. And my attorneys assure me that it will be overturned. BROWN: Well, it's unusual for attorneys to be that certain. The Supreme Court has spoken on this question. And it does seem to me it has sided with the federal government over the states. Why are the attorneys so certain you're going to walk? ROSENTHAL: Well, they think that there were so many improprieties at the trial and before the trial, that it reeks. BROWN: Can you give me a sense of what the improprieties were? ROSENTHAL: For instance, the prosecutor, AUSA Bevan, testified at the grand jury. And a prosecutor isn't supposed to testify. Once he testified, he should have recused himself from the grand jury. BROWN: Anyway, this goes to the 9th Circuit. And you're looking at five years if you don't win. We appreciate your time. And, as we always do with guests, we wish you good luck. Thanks a lot, Ed Rosenthal, in San Francisco tonight, in one of those cases. Snipped: Complete Transcripts: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/06/asb.00.htmlSource: CNN (US Web) Show: News Night with Aaron BrownShow Date: February 06, 2003Copyright: 2003 Cable News Network, Inc. Website: http://www.cnn.com/ Contact: cnn.feedback cnn.comDL: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/aaron.brown/Related Articles & Web Sites:Green-Aid.comhttp://www.green-aid.com Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmMedical Marijuana: Blind Injusticehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15395.shtmlA War Against The Peoplehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15394.shtmlAngry Rosenthal Jurors Call For New Trialhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15385.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by lag on February 07, 2003 at 06:45:10 PT
bah
"As we always do with guests, we wish them good luck." We are only doing this because we have to.Real nice.
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