23/06/2007 00:00:00
US: Guru of Ganja wants new trial (Ed Rosenthal )
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Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja" convicted for a second
time last month of violating federal drug laws by growing marijuana for
medical patients, wants a new trial.
The 62-year-old cannabis cultivation expert, former High Times magazine
columnist and steadfast advocate for legalizing marijuana claims U.S.
District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco wrongly prohibited him
from telling jurors his goal was helping the sick, not selling drugs.
"The court erred in excluding all evidence regarding the scientific
value of medical marijuana," Rosenthal's attorney, Robert Amparan, said
in court papers filed earlier this month.
Responding to that motion in papers filed Wednesday, Assistant U.S.
Attorney George Bevan said Rosenthal received a fair trial and the
evidence showed the Oakland resident had grown thousands of marijuana
plants.
"None of the defendant's allegations have any factual or legal merit,"
Bevan wrote.
On May 30, after a two-week trial and a day of deliberations, a federal
jury convicted Rosenthal of growing marijuana, conspiring to grow and
distribute marijuana and maintaining a building for illegal cultivation
at the Oakland warehouse where federal agents seized more than 3,700
plants in February 2002.
Jurors acquitted him of maintaining another pot-growing operation at the
Harm Reduction Center, a San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary. The
panel deadlocked on a fifth charge of conspiracy to grow and distribute
marijuana there.
Rosenthal was convicted of similar charges in 2003 but an appeals court
overturned the verdict because a juror called a lawyer for advice during
deliberations.
The charges normally carry a sentence of at least five years in prison,
but Breyer sentenced Rosenthal to just one day in jail -- which he had
already served. Breyer said Rosenthal believed he was acting within the
law because Oakland had named him its agent in the city's medical
marijuana program.
Federal prosecutors tried to file money-laundering and tax evasion
charges before Rosenthal's second trial. Breyer did not let them,
arguing that the government was retaliating against Rosenthal because of
his criticism and successful appeal. Breyer went so far as to suggest
that prosecutors drop the case entirely, but prosecutors decided to
proceed anyway.
During both trials, Breyer barred evidence that the marijuana Rosenthal
grew was intended for medicinal use under Proposition 215, the 1996
state ballot initiative that allows patients to use the drug with their
doctor's approval.
The judge also excluded evidence regarding Rosenthal's having been named
an official agent of Oakland's municipal medical marijuana program.
Left without a defense, Rosenthal's lawyers did not call any witnesses
during the retrial and argued instead that the prosecution's case was
tainted by the testimony of some of Rosenthal's former friends and
business partners who had been granted leniency.
Chronicle staff writer Bob Egelko contributed to this report.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/23/BAGL1QKR4O17.DTL
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12632
Author:
San Francisco Chronicle via UKCIA
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