cannabisnews.com: Ex-Candidate's Pot Conviction Tossed





Ex-Candidate's Pot Conviction Tossed
Posted by CN Staff on November 25, 2003 at 16:34:32 PT
By Jeff Hood, Lodi Bureau Chief
Source: Record
Lodi -- A former Lodi City Council candidate's marijuana convictions were reversed Friday by a state appeals court, which cited a California Supreme Court ruling that came after his case was decided in a local court. Brian Bader was convicted by a San Joaquin County Superior Court jury last year for growing marijuana and possessing it for sale after Lodi police found 147 plants at his home in 2001.
Bader was last in an eight-candidate field in last year's City Council election, receiving 838 votes. Three justices with the Third District Court of Appeal unanimously ruled the trial judge erred when he instructed the jury that Bader had to prove the marijuana was for personal medical use. In a similar case decided after Bader's conviction, the state Supreme Court ruled a defendant needs only raise a reasonable doubt the plants were for personal medical use. Bader received a marijuana prescription Sept. 26, 2000, from a Berkeley doctor to alleviate symptoms for chronic pain; anxiety; Meniere's disease, which causes vertigo and nausea; and Raynaud's Syndrome, which caused sores on his fingers and spasms. Bader had undergone surgery to treat his Raynaud's Syndrome. Proposition 215 legalized medical marijuana in 1996. Although an expert witness for the prosecution testified Bader's plants would likely yield no less than 20 pounds of marijuana a year, a defense expert testified the annual yield at no more than 3 pounds. "If the jury had been instructed that the defendant only had to raise a reasonable doubt with respect to the defense, there is a reasonable probability that defendant would have received a more favorable verdict," associate Justice Rod Davis wrote, with agreement from justices Harry Hull and Ronald B. Robie. Davis also wrote it wasn't surprising the jury found Bader guilty of marijuana for sale because that verdict came one day after the cultivation verdict. "This sequence strongly suggests that the jury considered the possession for sale charge only after concluding the defendant had illegally cultivated marijuana," Davis wrote. "Operating under this presumption, the jury was virtually compelled to find him guilty of possessing the marijuana for sale." Bader was turned in by a cousin who was angry at him and said Bader was growing the marijuana for sale. Davis' opinion states while there was evidence Bader may have been growing marijuana for other uses, it wasn't overwhelming. Neither Bader nor his attorney, John Schick, could be reached for comment. Source: Record, The (CA)Author: Jeff Hood, Lodi Bureau ChiefPublished: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The RecordContact: editor recordnet.comWebsite: http://www.recordnet.com/Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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