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US CA: Court of Appeal Throws Out Marijuana Conviction
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1242/a10.html
Newshawk: http://www.cannabisnews.com/
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 01 Sep 2004
Source: Metropolitan News-Enterprise (Los Angeles, CA)
Copyright: 2004 Metropolitan News Company
Contact: http://www.metnews.com/lettertoeditor.htm
Website: http://www.metnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3326
Note: Accepts LTEs from subscribers only.
Note: By a MetNews Staff Writer
Cited: the decision
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/G031061.PDF
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
COURT OF APPEAL THROWS OUT MARIJUANA CONVICTION
Rules Compassionate Use Defense Wrongly Barred
An Orange County man's conviction for possessing marijuana was thrown out
yesterday by an appellate panel that held his right to a "compassionate use"
defense under Proposition 215 had been violated.
In a 2 to 1 decision, the Fourth District Court of Appeal's Div. Three
granted Shaun Wright a new trial on charges of transporting marijuana and
possessing it for sale, leaving intact his conviction for driving with a
suspended license, to which he pled guilty.
The justices said Orange Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler was in error
when he barred Wright's attorney from presenting evidence in support of a
Proposition 215 defense and declined to instruct the jury regarding the
measure. The initiative provides that a defendant charged with possessing
or cultivating marijuana may assert as a defense that he was using the drug
for medicinal purposes on a doctor's recommendation.
Stotler based his order on his conclusion that the quantity of marijuana in
Wright's possession, 19 ounces, precluded his claim that he only had the
drug for personal medicinal use.
Wright was arrested by Huntington Beach officers who stopped him as he was
leaving a carwash.
According to testimony, the officers had received an anonymous tip that
there was marijuana in Wright's pickup truck. After one of the officers
approached the truck, noticed a backpack on the seat, and smelled the odor
of marijuana, he asked Wright to step out and eventually seized marijuana
from his person as well as from the backpack.
At a hearing outside the presence of the jury, Wright testified that he has
used marijuana for medicinal purposes since 1991, to relieve the pain of
various physical injuries. He said he both smokes the drug and adds it to
his food.
A physician, specializing in alternative medicine, testified that he had
seen Wright three months before his arrest and approved the use of marijuana
to relieve the pain.
Justice William Bedsworth, writing for the Court of Appeal, said the issue
of whether Wright possessed more marijuana than he might reasonably need to
relieve his symptoms was "a jury call." Nothing in Proposition 215, the
jurist noted, specifies the strength, quality, or quantity of marijuana that
will qualify as medicinal.
"Taken as a whole, it is safe to say the evidence was reasonably susceptible
of different interpretations," he wrote. "While a rational trier of fact
could certainly find that Wright possessed the marijuana in his truck for
monetary, not medical, reasons, Wright presented sufficient evidence to
support a contrary conclusion if believed....The amount of marijuana, the
scales found in his car and the packaging of the marijuana diminish his
chances of success with that defense, but California law-as many a chagrined
trial judge will attest-does not bar defenses on the basis they are unlikely
to succeed."
Justice Eileen Moore concurred in the opinion.
Presiding Justice David Sills, dissenting, accused the majority of trying to
rewrite Proposition 215.
"[The initiative] states, in quite straightforward language, that it applies
to a person charged with simple possession or cultivation of marijuana as
found in Health and Safety Code sections 11357 or 11358; no other charge is
exempted from prosecution," the jurist wrote. The fact that jurors could
have found him guilty of simple possession as a lesser included charge, but
did not, indicates that Wright could not have prevailed on a compassionate
use defense in any event, Sills argued.
The case is People v. Wright, G031061.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
************************
Mark
"Marijuana clearly has medicinal value.
Thousands of seriously ill Americans have
been able to determine that for themselves,
albeit illegally. Like my own family, these
individuals did not wish to break the law but
they had no choice."
--Lyn Nofziger, former deputy chairman of
the Republican National Committee
From the book, Marijuana Rx,
by Robert C. Randall, the founder of
the medical marijuana movement.
Marijuana Rx is published by
Thunder's Mouth Press.)
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On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 23:55:39 -0700, Mark2101 wrote:
US CA: Court of Appeal Throws Out Marijuana Conviction
The Kalifornia Kourt System doesn't get the final say
on this. If his ass winds up in Federal COurt he's toast,
as ought it be.
IBM
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On 3 Sep 2004 18:17:48 GMT, "ian maclure" <ibm@svpal.org> wrote:
On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 23:55:39 -0700, Mark2101 wrote:
The Kalifornia Kourt System doesn't get the final say
on this. If his ass winds up in Federal COurt he's toast,
as ought it be.
Obvious Communist....
US Constitution, Amendment X
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people. "
Dr P
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