Angry Rosenthal Pot Jurors Call For New Trial

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.

Full article at Alternet.org