cannabisnews.com: No Medicinal Pot Verdict Yet





No Medicinal Pot Verdict Yet
Posted by FoM on February 19, 2000 at 14:01:15 PT
By Maline Hazle, Record Searchlight
Source: Record Searchlight
After more than two full days of deliberations, jurors in the marijuana trial of a Redding man and his mother went home late Friday afternoon without having reached a verdict.However, questions to the judge and testimony that jurors asked to have read back to them give some hints about their thinking in the case against Jim Hall, 38, and Lydia Hall, 62.
The Halls claim they grew and used marijuana for medicinal use and did so legally under the state's 1996 Compassionate Use Act. The prosecution contends that Jim Hall grew too much pot and intended to sell it.The law does not specify the number of plants a patient can grow or how much marijuana a patient can have or use.Jim Hall is charged with possession of marijuana for sale, and he and his mother are charged with cultivation of marijuana and conspiracy to cultivate.Although jurors had some testimony read back to them on Thursday, they made only a few other requests — mostly for supplies, including Post-it notes.They also had a close-up look at the six small bags of ''green bud'' Shasta County sheriff's deputies took from the Halls' house last year and a Camel cigarette box holding a few partially smoked joints, or ''roaches.''With each jury request the Halls, attorney Eric Berg of Redding, and their supporters, at times numbering a dozen, trooped back to the courtroom from their waiting places in the third floor courthouse hallway.Prosecutor Tim Kam and Shasta County sheriff's deputies traveled back and forth from the district attorney's and sheriff's offices across Court Street.A more telling question was sent to Shasta County Superior Court Judge Bradley Boeckman at 10:55 a.m. Friday.If they don't find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on the sales charge, but do find the Halls had pot ''in excess of what is reasonable use,'' jurors asked, does the law allow convictions for possession and cultivation of marijuana?Boeckman said he didn't want to give the 10-woman, two-man jury a ''yes'' or ''no'' answer because it could be construed as direction from him to reach one verdict or another.Instead, he asked Kam and Berg to select appropriate passages from instructions read to the jury before deliberations began Wednesday.Berg also asked Boeckman to remind jurors that the Compassionate Use Act places no restrictions on patient use and possession of marijuana, but the judge declined, noting that jurors could decide that the Halls' purposes were not medical and convict them.It was just before noon when Boeckman sent the jury highlighted copies of the instructions and a note reminding them that Lydia Hall is not accused of possession of marijuana for sale and therefore cannot be convicted of the lesser possession charge.Jurors broke for lunch just after noon, returning at 1:17 p.m. But 43 minutes later they sent another request to the judge — a query that indicated their focus indeed may be on the legitimacy of Jim Hall's marijuana use.They asked to have read back the entire testimony of Dr. Jeffrey Grolig, a Redding pain specialist who first treated Hall in 1995, a year after Hall underwent surgery for removal of parts of two disks and two bones in his spine.Several jurors took notes as the court reporter read to them for just under two hours — apparently interested in the details of Hall's pain and the resulting problems with sleeplessness, depression and headaches.Those same jurors seemed to be noting the half-dozen or more narcotics, steroids and other treatments Hall was given and the stomach problems Grolig said resulted.They also listened intently again to questioning about Hall and whether he had asked Grolig to recommend marijuana.Grolig said that Hall's medical chart showed that he told doctors he got relief from marijuana and that Hall may have asked for a recommendation.But had Hall asked, Grolig said, the doctor would have refused because ''I think it's too up in the air about law enforcement and I can't afford to subject myself to the risk with my family and everything.''Grolig also testified that he ''remembered vaguely'' a conversation in which he talked to Hall about another doctor who might give him the recommendation he sought.Jurors returned to the deliberation room at 4:25 p.m., but left the courthouse — some of them appearing frustrated — 25 minutes later.Monday is Washington's Birthday and a court holiday, so jurors will not meet again until Tuesday morning.The trial began Jan. 25.Reporter Maline Hazle can be reached at 225-8266 or at mhazle redding.comPublished: February 19, 2000© 2000 Record Searchlight - The E.W. Scripps Co. Related Articles:Jury Weighs Evidence in Pot Trialhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4759.shtmlGrandma Says She Used Pot To Ease Painhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4637.shtml
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