Riggo-toni
February-6th-2003, 08:41 AM
On Friday January 31, a 12-member federal jury unanimously found marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal guilty of cultivation and other serious drug crimes.
During the trial, the government depicted Rosenthal as a major drug manufacturer.
However, the jury was not told the full truth about the case -- and now they are shocked and furious. Some are now publicly repudiating their verdict.
Rosenthal is a world-renowned marijuana expert, and the 100-plus plants he was growing were for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program. That program resulted from the 1996 medical marijuana initiative approved by California's voters.
The jury was told none of this. The judge denied requests by
Rosenthal's lawyers to call witnesses to testify that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana, on the grounds that federal law does not allow the growing of marijuana for medical reasons.
Now jurors say they would have acquitted him had they been told all the facts.
"I feel like I made the biggest mistake in my life," juror Marney Craig told reporters. "We convicted a man who is not a criminal. We unfortunately had no idea of who he was or what he did. It was like a kangaroo court.”
"If we'd known he was hired by the city, I would have said this guy didn't deserve any of this," said juror Pamela Klarkowski. "I feel used. It's horrible. We didn't get the whole picture. I feel the jury was railroaded into making this decision. Had I known that information, there is no way I could have found that man guilty."
"I'm hearing all of these things after the fact," another juror said.
"That sheds a whole new light on it."
"Some of us jurors are upset about the way the trial was conducted in that we feel Mr. Rosenthal didn't have a chance and therefore neither did state's rights or patient's rights," jury foreman Charles Sackett said. "I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to decide with all the evidence."
Sackett and other jurors say they hope the case is overturned on
appeal.
In fact, several jurors are taking the extraordinary step of writing
Rosenthal to apologize.
Rosenthal, 58, faces up to an 85-year prison term when sentenced June 4 --for the “crime” of growing marijuana for sick people in a state whose voters legalized that practice.
During the trial, the government depicted Rosenthal as a major drug manufacturer.
However, the jury was not told the full truth about the case -- and now they are shocked and furious. Some are now publicly repudiating their verdict.
Rosenthal is a world-renowned marijuana expert, and the 100-plus plants he was growing were for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program. That program resulted from the 1996 medical marijuana initiative approved by California's voters.
The jury was told none of this. The judge denied requests by
Rosenthal's lawyers to call witnesses to testify that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana, on the grounds that federal law does not allow the growing of marijuana for medical reasons.
Now jurors say they would have acquitted him had they been told all the facts.
"I feel like I made the biggest mistake in my life," juror Marney Craig told reporters. "We convicted a man who is not a criminal. We unfortunately had no idea of who he was or what he did. It was like a kangaroo court.”
"If we'd known he was hired by the city, I would have said this guy didn't deserve any of this," said juror Pamela Klarkowski. "I feel used. It's horrible. We didn't get the whole picture. I feel the jury was railroaded into making this decision. Had I known that information, there is no way I could have found that man guilty."
"I'm hearing all of these things after the fact," another juror said.
"That sheds a whole new light on it."
"Some of us jurors are upset about the way the trial was conducted in that we feel Mr. Rosenthal didn't have a chance and therefore neither did state's rights or patient's rights," jury foreman Charles Sackett said. "I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to decide with all the evidence."
Sackett and other jurors say they hope the case is overturned on
appeal.
In fact, several jurors are taking the extraordinary step of writing
Rosenthal to apologize.
Rosenthal, 58, faces up to an 85-year prison term when sentenced June 4 --for the “crime” of growing marijuana for sick people in a state whose voters legalized that practice.