|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
US CA: Pot Jury Tainted, Lawyers Claim
ccguide Friday 28 Feb 2003 Pubdate: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA) Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers Contact: Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/314 Author: Josh Richman Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal POT JURY TAINTED, LAWYERS CLAIM Rosenthal's attorneys say juror received outside legal advice Attorneys for medical marijuana grower and federal convict Ed Rosenthal of Oakland on Wednesday gave a judge what they say is evidence of jury misconduct that could require a new trial. The papers say one of the federal jurors who convicted Rosenthal, 58, on Jan. 31 of three marijuana-related felonies, has admitted that during the trial she called a friend who is a lawyer. With misgivings about U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's instruction to ignore California's medical marijuana law, the juror asked her friend whether she had any wiggle room to exercise her own thoughts and conscience. The friend apparently told her she did not -- that she must follow the judge's instructions explicitly -- and the juror then shared this information with another juror. "We're not really sure what the judge is going to do with this, if there will be a hearing," Rosenthal spokeswoman Teresa Schilling said Wednesday evening. "It's hard to say at this point." The U.S. Attorney's office, which doesn't comment on pending cases, has until March 5 to respond to the papers filed Wednesday. "It is generally not proper for a jury to rely upon ... statements of the law from a source other than the trial court," said professor Charles Weisselberg, a criminal law expert at the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. "The question the court will wrestle with is, assuming this was not proper: How did it harm the defense?" Professor Franklin Zimring, also at Boalt Hall, predicted Breyer "is not going to be enormously receptive. The question is whether something like that is going to influence a judge to reverse a verdict, and the answer is probably not."Not a convincing hook Even as grounds for an appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he said, "I don't think these jury communications all by themselves will be a convincing hook." Federal agents raided Rosenthal's home, his West Oakland marijuana-growing facility and other sites a year ago. Although state and local laws permit medical use of marijuana, federal law bans all growing, possession and use.Possible lighter sentence Jurors were ordered not to consider state law, and weren't told of the Oakland ordinance meant to protect certain growers from prosecution. Rosenthal faces at least five years in federal prison at his June 4 sentencing, although Breyer has said he'll seek reasons to impose a lesser sentence. The two jurors cited in Wednesday's filing have been among the most vocal in stating their regret at having convicted Rosenthal; they said if they'd known about the city ordinance, they would have refused to convict no matter what federal law says. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!