cannabisnews.com: Michigan Man Extradited on 74 Drug Conviction!





Michigan Man Extradited on 74 Drug Conviction!
Posted by FoM on December 10, 1998 at 07:24:38 PT
This is for $10 Worth of Pot!
MARTINSVILLE, Va. In the 25 years since Alfred Martin III escaped from a prison work detail, he married, raised three children and went to work for a mortgage company in Michigan. He said he never returned to Virginia. 
But the man one judge said lived an "exemplary" life has been sent back to serve out a one-year jail sentence for selling a $10 bag of marijuana. He was extradited from Detroit on Wednesday. It could get worse for Martin, 49. He is due to be arraigned Friday on escape and larceny charges and could get up to 25 years in prison if convicted. "In Michigan he may have been law abiding, but he's got to pay his debt to society here," said Martinsville Sheriff Steve Draper. Prosecutors said Martin probably would have served only about three months, with time off for good behavior, if he hadn't run away. Two years after he fled, Virginia discovered that Martin was in Michigan. But in 1976, then-Michigan Gov. William Milliken refused to allow his extradition and essentially granted Martin legal asylum as long as he remained in Michigan. His extradition became possible in the late 1980s as a result of a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that meant governors only have ministerial functions when they receive an extradition request, said John Truscott, a spokesman for Michigan Gov. John Engler. Last month, police stopped Martin for driving with expired plates, and a record check showed he was a fugitive. Virginia again sought his extradition, and Engler signed an extradition warrant Dec. 4. On Monday, Circuit Judge William Cahalan in Detroit ruled he had no choice but to honor Virginia's request, even as he praised the life Martin had created as being "exemplary" and called his family "a credit to Michigan." The Michigan Court of Appeals refused to block the extradition. Martin faces up to five years on the escape charge and 20 years on the larceny charge if convicted. The larceny charge alleges Martin never paid off a TV and stereo system he bought on an installment plan from a local store. Martin's attorney, Guy Dobbs, said he wants to try to get his client's original conviction overturned. "Mr. Martin has shown that he is not an individual who is a drug dealer," Dobbs said. This is totally unfair to this man and his family! It was only Pot not Heroin! They need to get Cannabis out of the same class as Heroin and other hard drugs! Why haven't they rescheduled Marijuana with so many organizations saying that it should be done?
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Comment #1 posted by UaN on December 11, 1998 at 11:57:05 PT
Wake up America!
How can these people sleep at nite knowing what they have done to this man......for $10 worth of pot......ridiculous!
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