no relief

[cluebyfour]

Absolutely sickening.

In a closely watched trial involving conflicting marijuana laws, a jury on Tuesday convicted the owner of a Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary on five counts of violating federal drug laws

Comments

[gentlemaitresse]

These are the kinds of people in prison with whom I'd like to correspond, send xmas cards to, maybe send care packages if they're allowed to receive them.

This is an absolute travesty of justice, but at the very least I wish there were a way to show my support for him and others like him.

[cluebyfour]

Hopefully he can remain free while his case is appealed.

If not, however, there is a way to look up inmates in the Federal prison system, although you'll need either an ID number or the inmate's full name (and hope it doesn't return multiple matches).

[gentlemaitresse]

Well, that's something, at least. I suppose one could also try to contact him through his attorney.

[ms_cantrell]

that really is revolting. whomever pushed for this indictment and conviction is a complete shite.

[cluebyfour]

The Federal prosecutor, obviously, and by extension the Bush administration, which is clearly intent on enforcing Federal drug laws no matter what the states allow.

[phanatic]

And those fucking jurors. "We had no choice"? Of course you fucking did, you're the *jury*.

[ms_cantrell]

well, yes, the federal prosecutor, but each office has an agenda and some discretion with what they prioritize.

[ilcylic]

States need to start prosecuting local law enforcement who help the feds in cases like this.

"You work for us. You go on a drug raid for someone who isn't breaking our laws, that's a felony."

Qualified imminity, sadly, likely prevents the states from arresting the federal drug thugs directly.

[phanatic]

It probably doesn't prevent the states from slapping them in handcuffs, driving them to the state line, and kicking them out of the car.

[ilcylic]

I find your ideas compelling, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[hotforeignsheep]

And this is why we need to brief our jurors on the concept of jury nullification. Oh, wait, they do, they just tell them it's not allowed. Which is of course bullshit.

[graey42]

How can they just flat out lie like that? I can understand bending the rules as far as possible, but isn't out and out lying against the rules somewhere?

[cluebyfour]

The judge probably didn't mention anything about nullification, and most jurors wouldn't know about it. He did, however, bar the defense from bringing it up, nor did he allow them to present witnesses and evidence to show that he was a) helping people, and b) operating within state law.

[allknight]

This makes me wonder how much of these decisions by the judge were discretionary VS mandated...