Angry Rosenthal Pot Jurors Call For New Trial

By Ann Harrison, AlterNet. Posted February 5, 2003.

In an extraordinary condemnation of federal drug war tactics, five jurors who convicted medical cannabis grower Ed Rosenthal of federal marijuana cultivation and conspiracy charges, held a press conference yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 4) to apologize and to call for a new trial.

The jurors said they were outraged to discover that Rosenthal had been deputized by the city of Oakland, Calif. to grow medical cannabis for patients under California's Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215). The judge denied all but two of Rosenthal's defense witnesses, including the Oakland city attorney who drafted the legal immunity provisions for the city's medical marijuana program.

"I fail to understand how evidence and testimony that is pertinent, imperative and representative to state government policy, as well as doctor and patient rights, and indeed your own family, are irrelevant to this case," said jury foreman Charles E. Sackett III, who read a letter to Ed Rosenthal.

Defense lawyers made repeated attempts to inform jurors during the trial that Rosenthal was a medical cannabis grower who had been promised immunity from prosecution. But U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer blocked every effort, ruling that federal law considers all marijuana use and cultivation a criminal offense. When former Oakland city council member Nate Miley testified that he met Rosenthal, "in the context of Prop. 215," the judge instructed the jury to ignore the comment, and took over the questioning of Miley himself.

"I wondered why the defense portion of your case was so brief as to almost be non-existent?" asked Sackett, a landscape contractor. He said the court was unfair to Rosenthal and to the citizens of California and eight other states where state and federal medical marijuana laws conflict. "We as a jury was unaware that your counsel was being denied the opportunity to present most of your evidence and outside testimony."

Eight of the 14 sitting jurors condemned the verdict. This included one of the two alternate jurors who did not vote, and two jurors who were not present. At the courthouse press conference, jurors and city officials offered their condemnation and apologies. "It is the most horrible mistake I have ever made," said juror Marney Craig, a 58-year-old property manager who voted to convict. "I feel like we were sheep, we were manipulated."

Rosenthal's attorney, Robert Eye, said the defense team held no ill will toward the jurors, whom he called a "courageous" group of people that had simply been placed in an untenable position. Facing the TV cameras with the jurors, Rosenthal and 30 some supporters, Eye added that in a democracy, justice does not end at the courthouse doors.

"Both the jury and I were victims of vicious persecution by an illegal government action," said Rosenthal. He said that prosecutor George Bevan, "persecuted me to shut down the medical marijuana movement -- he lost. I have no regret for helping thousands of patients get their own medicine."

Rosenthal's trial has generated extensive national media coverage, including a Feb. 4 editorial in the New York Times, which asserted that Rosenthal's potential 5- to 20-year sentence "shows that the misguided federal war on medical marijuana has now escalated out of control."

The War At Home

Before their press conference, several jurors attended a hearing in which Bevan pressed Judge Breyer to revoke Rosenthal's $200,000 cash bond and send him to jail until his sentencing on June 4. Bevan insisted that Rosenthal was a flight risk, and complained that Rosenthal had referred to the proceedings as a "kangaroo court." But Judge Breyer cited the "exceptional" nature of the case and allowed Rosenthal to remain free.

Bevan's unsworn testimony to the grand jury has been cited in a defense motion to overturn the indictment against Rosenthal. According to Eye, Bevan secured the indictment by telling skeptical jurists that Rosenthal's cannabis cultivation violated the terms of Prop. 215. If Rosenthal is denied a new trial, Eye says the defense will take the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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