A Placer County jury deadlocked 11-1 for acquittal on all five marijuana counts at the trial of medical marijuana advocates Steve and Michele Kubby, ending a three-month trial after four days of deliberation.[1] The 21 December 2000 verdict was a near-total win for the couple’s claim that their 265-plant grow in their rented Olympic Valley home was medicine permitted under California’s Proposition 215.[1][2]
Of the 265 plants found in the January 1999 search, 107 were fully budded females three to four feet tall; prosecution witnesses with law enforcement backgrounds argued the harvest would have supplied the couple for over three years.[1] The Kubbys said they worked with the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative to keep the garden within Oakland’s guidelines, and Steve Kubby said the 11-1 vote set a workable plant standard for law enforcement.[1][2]
The movement’s win was incomplete: Steve Kubby, 53, was convicted of possessing a psychedelic mushroom stem and mescaline in peyote buttons found during the search, each carrying up to three years in state prison, while Michele Kubby, 34, was found not guilty of the same two felonies.[1] The pair were ordered back to court on 2 February, Steve for sentencing and both to learn whether prosecutors would seek a second trial on the marijuana counts.[1]
