cannabisnews.com: Marijuana 'Guru' Free After 1 Day Sentence





Marijuana 'Guru' Free After 1 Day Sentence
Posted by CN Staff on June 04, 2003 at 19:48:49 PT
By Marcelo Rodriguez and Daryl Strickland
Source: Los Angeles Times 
San Francisco -- In a ruling that stunned both the prosecutors and defense attorneys, a federal judge allowed legalized marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal to walk free Wednesday.Rosenthal, convicted in February of growing more than 100 marijuana plants in an Oakland warehouse, has become the centerpiece of a growing national debate about medical marijuana and a battle between the federal government and the nine states in which it is legal.
Rosenthal said he had legal standing to do so under Proposition 215, a 1996 voter-approved measure that legalized medical marijuana in the state. And he said he was acting as an agent for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program.But during the trial, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Rosenthal's defense was not admissible in federal court because U.S. law does not distinguish between medicinal and recreational uses of marijuana.The case received a great deal of attention. Immediately after the conviction, a majority of jurors said they would have voted to acquit Rosenthal had they known the plants were to be used medicinally to aid, among others, cancer and AIDS patients.In his sentencing, Breyer made clear that the Rosenthal case presented "extraordinary circumstances," which warranted a one-day sentence, with credit for time served. Rosenthal spent a day in jail after his arrest by federal drug enforcement officers last year."Believing he was an official of the city of Oakland is not relative to his guilt or innocence," Breyer said. "But it is relevant to sentencing. It's erroneous, but reasonable for him to believe that he was protected by a City Council ordinance."Moreover, eight of the 12 jurors also asked the judge in a May 27 letter to Breyer "to bring the law into alignment with morality and ethics" by sparing Rosenthal prison time "because we convicted him without having all of the evidence." Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/guru.htm Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author:  Marcelo Rodriguez and Daryl Strickland, Special to The TimesPublished: June 04, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Ed Rosenthal's Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htm The 'Guru of Ganja' Walks Free http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16529.shtmlPot Movement Seeks Sympathetic Jurieshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16528.shtmlEd Rosenthal Spared from Prison Sentence http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16526.shtml 
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