Judge Excuses Half the Jury Pool in Federal Trial of Ed Rosenthal

Potential Jurors Speak Out In Favor of Medical Marijuana, Legalization and States' Rights

a Green Aid press release

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 -- In what one defense attorney called the most remarkable day of jury selection he’d ever witnessed, more than half of the 52 potential jurors in the marijuana-cultivation trial of best-selling author and activist Ed Rosenthal were excused by the judge for cause. Even small-town murder trials where everyone knows everyone and emotions run high will see at most one or two jurors excused as being unable to give the proceeding a fair hearing.

Asked by Judge Charles Breyer if they had strong feelings on the legalization of marijuana, the legality of medical marijuana, or the conflict between federal law and California’s voter initiative, Proposition 215, legalizing the medical use of marijuana, juror after juror either regaled the court with poignant anecdotes about how they or someone they knew used or had recommended to them medical marijuana, gave voice to passionate feelings about the need to legalize marijuana for all use, or expressed deep distaste for federal interference in California’s laws. That these views were expressed by what appeared to be a representative cross-section of the Bay Area’s populace was perhaps less surprising than that they were willing to give voice to such a call for reform at all, since potential jurors normally understate the strength of their views when speaking in front of strangers, for fear of how their peers might react.

At the end of the day, the judge called for another pool of 50 to be presented tomorrow morning and guaranteed completion of selection by lunchtime. Of those jurors who can get past the judge’s questions, the defense is permitted to challenge ten and the prosecution six, so at least five more potential jurors are needed to seat twelve and two alternates.

The defense today also presented additional case authority in support of their pretrial motion on entrapment by estoppel, which argued that because local authorities had established a program to extend federal immunity from prosecution to those such as Rosenthal who were deputized to implement the city of Oakland’s medical marijuana ordinance, and had told him he would be protected, he should not now be prosecuted. The judge said the additional cases cited in support of that argument would be considered.

Jury selection continues at 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, January 15, in U.S. District Court, with trial commencing on Tuesday, January 21, 2003.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Updates and background information on Ed Rosenthal’s case are available on the web at
www.green-aid.com or
www.safeaccessnow.org.