Rosenthal remains free as pot case jurors decry their own verdict

By ANGELA WATERCUTTER
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) In a courtroom crowded with medical marijuana advocates wearing ``Free Ed'' buttons, a federal judge said that convicted marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal is not a flight risk and allowed him to remain free on $200,000 bail pending his June sentencing.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to revoke the bail of Rosenthal, who faces up to an 85-year prison term when he is sentenced June 4, saying that they believed Rosenthal was a flight risk. After Breyer refused that request Tuesday, Rosenthal shook hands and exchanged hugs with supporters in the courtroom.

Rosenthal, 58, the self-described ``Guru of Ganja,'' was convicted Friday of cultivation and other drug charges by a jury that almost immediately questioned its own verdict. Several jurors have said they would have acquitted him had they been told he was growing medical marijuana for the city of Oakland.

``I never want to see this happen again,'' said jury foreman Charles Sackett, 51 of Sebastopol, reading an apology letter to Rosenthal outside the federal courthouse. ``We had the integrity to follow the letter of the law in federal court. Yet I must admit that court played unfairly.''

Other jurors agreed. Five of the jurors and one alternate were in the courtroom during Tuesday's bail hearing, and outside of court they said they had heard support for their actions from two others.

During the hearing Tuesday, prosecutors said that regardless of Rosenthal's position with the city, he was not a public official and the number of plants Rosenthal cultivated was still a violation of state law.

Rosenthal, who appeared outside of the San Francisco courthouse flanked on either side by his wife and 12-year-old daughter, said he doesn't blame the jurors for his conviction.

``Both the jury and I were victims of persecution, of an illegal government action,'' Rosenthal said, standing in front of about 30 medical marijuana advocates outside of federal court. ``I have no regrets. I was helping patients.''

After a two-week trial, the 12-member jury unanimously concluded that Rosenthal, a world-renowned marijuana advocate, was growing more than 100 plants, conspiring to cultivate marijuana and maintaining an Oakland warehouse for a growing operation. He was painted as a major drug manufacturer and put on little defense.

The jury was not told that Rosenthal was acting as an agent of the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program, which was an outgrowth of a 1996 medical marijuana initiative approved by California's voters.

Throughout the two-week trial, Rosenthal's defense team repeatedly tried to call witnesses to testify that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana. The judge denied those requests. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the judge twice during mid-trial appeals.

Federal authorities have waged a campaign against the law, raiding California providers of medical marijuana. Rosenthal was arrested in one such crackdown last year.

Still, legal experts said Judge Breyer, brother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, had federal precedent on his side when excluding defense witnesses.

Also backing Breyer, experts say, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago prohibiting advocates for the sick and dying from doling out marijuana to those with a doctor's recommendation. That decision prompted a string of raids on medical marijuana growing operations throughout California. In addition, the federal government does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in nine states that have them.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)