A federal jury in San Francisco convicted marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal on 30 May 2007 of three charges of illegal cultivation and conspiracy for growing cannabis for medical patients, after a day of deliberations.[1] Rosenthal, 62, of Oakland was acquitted on a fourth charge while the jury hung on a fifth, and he faced no punishment for the felony convictions apart from the one day in jail already served.[1]
An earlier jury had convicted him of similar charges in 2003, but an appeals court overturned that verdict after a juror telephoned a lawyer for advice during deliberations.[1] For the retrial prosecutors added money-laundering and tax charges, but Judge Charles Breyer dismissed them, finding the government was retaliating for Rosenthal’s criticism and his successful appeal.[1] Americans for Safe Access likewise records the March 2007 dismissal of the tax and money-laundering charges and the retrial conviction with another one-day time-served sentence.[2]
Rosenthal had been arrested in February 2002 after federal agents seized more than 3,700 marijuana plants at an Oakland warehouse, where he grew for supply to Bay Area medical marijuana dispensaries.[1] In both trials the judge barred evidence that the marijuana was for medical use under Proposition 215, the 1996 state initiative, or that Oakland had deputized Rosenthal, so his lawyers called no witnesses at the retrial.[1] His lawyers said they would ask the judge to throw out the convictions.[1]
