cannabisnews.com: Medicinal Pot's Leader Receives Lenient Sentence





Medicinal Pot's Leader Receives Lenient Sentence
Posted by CN Staff on June 05, 2003 at 07:23:06 PT
By Claire Cooper -- Bee Legal Affairs Writer
Source: Sacramento Bee 
San Francisco -- The federal government's odd case against the nation's leading marijuana guru took another unusual turn Wednesday, when a judge sentenced Edward Rosenthal to the single day he's already spent in a county jail.Cheers rang through the courthouse as U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said a "just punishment ... requires substantial departure" from sentencing guidelines for Rosenthal's pot-farming crime, and then announced a sentence of "one day with credit for time served."
Prosecutors had requested a 6 1/2 -year term. Pot activists were forecasting as much as 85 years, though the legal maximum appeared to be about 60 years.Several of the jurors who convicted Rosenthal in February -- without knowing he grew his pot for the benefit of hundreds of medical users -- wept with joy."It affected us so much," said foreman Charles Sackett as he left the courtroom."This is Day One in the crusade to bring down the marijuana laws," the defendant told reporters afterward.But he called Breyer corrupt and asked him to resign."He did me no favors," Rosenthal said. "What he did is he made me a felon because he did not allow this jury to hear the full story."Rosenthal's lawyer, Dennis Riordan, said the conviction will be appealed. Prosecutors declined to comment on whether the government will appeal the sentence, which also includes three years of supervised release, a $1,000 fine and a $300 assessment.Rosenthal, 58, has been the most prominent of the California growers targeted by federal drug agents since the state in 1996 adopted Proposition 215, permitting pot use by qualified patients.The country's leading author of how-to books and articles on marijuana cultivation, Rosenthal was deputized by Oakland as supplier for a city-sponsored pot cooperative in an attempt to keep federal authorities at bay.But because virtually all marijuana remains illegal under federal law, Breyer barred evidence of medical use at Rosenthal's trial. As a result, the jury found him guilty of supplying hundreds of pot seedlings to users without having heard that his massive Oakland warehouse farm wasn't a purely commercial enterprise.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/6793733p-7744296c.html Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)Author: Claire Cooper -- Bee Legal Affairs WriterPublished: Thursday, June 5, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Sacramento BeeContact: opinion sacbee.comWebsite: http://www.sacbee.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Ed Rosenthal's Pictures & Articles http://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmRosenthal Gets Slap On Wristhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16537.shtmlMarijuana Grower Sentenced To One Day http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16535.shtmlMedical Marijuana Activist Free http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16533.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by TecHnoCult on June 05, 2003 at 08:21:38 PT
Supply Comment
When did he make that comment? During the sentensing?
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on June 05, 2003 at 07:57:48 PT:
The Rest---Note what the Judge Asks about Supply!
"Immediately after the trial, most of the jurors revolted, appearing publicly with Rosenthal, apologizing, expressing anguish at the role they said they would have declined to play if they had been informed.Last week nine of them signed a letter to Breyer, urging him to "bring the law into alignment with morality and ethics.""It's wonderful to see mercy involved in our judicial system," juror Pamela Klarkowski said after court Wednesday.Others who supported Rosenthal in the sentencing proceeding included California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who wrote to Breyer to urge the minimum possible sentence.Lockyer asked the judge to consider California's initiative and a widely sponsored bill pending in the U.S. House that would allow defendants in federal pot cases to introduce evidence of compliance with state medical pot laws. Two House members from California, Democrat Sam Farr and Republican Dana Rohrabacher, introduced the bill in response to the Rosenthal case.Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan argued the federal government's position in court, saying, "Mr. Rosenthal was growing a lot of plants. ... There was nothing exceptional about this case." He said Rosenthal "deep down in his heart" didn't really believe he was an officer of Oakland.The prosecutor also contended Rosenthal violated rather than furthered Proposition 215 because the initiative purports to legalize the drug only for patients and their caregivers, not for growers and cooperatives.But Breyer asked, "Is it logical to say you can have it but you can't get it?"The judge called the circumstances of Rosenthal's crime "highly unusual."Rosenthal conducted his business in the open, reasonably believing he was immune from prosecution, Breyer said. He also took into account Rosenthal's support from public officials.Riordan, Rosenthal's attorney, said the jury should have been allowed to weigh the same factors -- a point he'll make in appealing the conviction.Defense lawyer J. Tony Serra said Rosenthal's sentence "shows the enormous disparity in attitudes toward medical marijuana in two adjacent Northern California federal jurisdictions," San Francisco and Sacramento.Serra represented Bryan Epis, who received a 10-year sentence in federal court in Sacramento last fall for supplying pot to a medical dispensary in Chico.Serra said he didn't expect Rosenthal's sentence to affect Epis' appeal, but he said Epis has other strong appeal issues."
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