Pot will become legal at the federal level. Juries are starting to nullify the law in pot possession cases and setting defendants free.
It’s illegal to grow marijuana in Georgia, meaning things didn’t look good for Javonnie McCoy when police busted him with nearly a pound of home-grown pot in his residence.
…yet jurors found him not guilty last week. As Bill Torpy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionexplains, it may have been because of an unusual legal strategy used by McCoy’s attorney called jury nullification. Essentially, attorney Catherine Bernard told the panel that a jury has the power to “nullify a law it disagrees with—at least as it pertains to the specific case under consideration,” per a post at FitsNews.
McCoy had told the court that he was beaten into a coma in 2003 and that marijuana is about the only thing that helps with the lingering pain and trauma. “The jury appreciated his honesty throughout the case … and recognized that a good, hard working man living a quiet life and not bothering anyone didn’t deserve a felony conviction for his actions,”
This was a good outcome. It is gratifying to see a sensible and just jury verdict.
We need educated, professional juries.
Case after case of Federal officials walking away from serious charges or not even being investigated. Taxpayer money thrown to illegal aliens and some states allowing them to vote.
Were I on this jury, I would be inclined to let him skate. And, despite the repeated “rank and file law enforcement are honest”, I’ll cast a jaundiced eye towards any government testimony. Either we have law and justice for all members of society or we stop convicting the little guys when they are charged with what I would consider a victimless crime.
Back in the 70’s when I was living in Alaska they decriminalized marijuana. It was not unlawful to grow your own for personal use. Once they started busting guys with 400 pounds of personal use they changed the law.
There is a simple reason for jury nullification. Look at who is bringing the case. Always.
when old guys started getting their ears pierced in the 80’s and 90’s, i stopped wearing my earing from my band days.
i was a rebel, they were just wannabes
now when the new thing is to start smoking pot because it’s legal, i am bored with it as well as with beer, or any other intoxicating element i used to ingest. why, because i could and it was fun at the time. Well, it’s no fun anymore, where’s the sense adventure or risk in doing these things anymore. all gone. seems like every-time authority legalizes something i used to do in private because i knew it was illegal and it gave you a rush they ruin it and i have to stop just to acknowledge to myself that im not a follower but am a leader and need to start doing something else until that becomes the next fucking fad craze and then i have to stop that and start doing something else.
it tiresome being me, but i’ll survive, i guess.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
which reminds me of this movie, fun times.
Blue Sunshine (1977)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074226/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwCOw1oYLk
fun times
I was looking at kiddie porn in the privacy of my house and not bothering anyone because I can’t get off to adults. The pictures were already there on the internet. I was doing meth in the privacy of my house and cooking it myself and not bothering anyone because I have narcolepsy and it is the only thing that helps. Hahahaha jury nullification is fun!
Getting sentenced to prison by a judge who had 3 scotches at lunch time is fun too!
Especially if some of the jurors who convicted you had a hangover.
Back in the day, asking the judge for an explanation of “jury nullification” during the voir dire process used to be a quick way to be immediately excused from jury duty. The Powers That Be didn’t want the hoi polloi knowing about that little legal loophole.
I’m down with the descision, why Jail him he’s hurting nobody and Helping Himself.
What if the crazy movie “Reefer Madness”, had enstead been Titled “Booze Madness”.
The “war on drugs” is just as stupid and almost as costly as the “war on poverty”.
Recreational drugs; primarily alcohol and tobacco were in widespread use when the Constitution was written. Yet the framers gave the federal government no direct role in their use, ditto for gambling, prostitution, healthcare costs, education, housing etc.
The arrest and jail records accumulated have done far more cumulative harm than the drugs. And the legalized theft of personal property spawned from this “make work for lawyers” program is the icing on the “war against the people” cake.
Booze ruins your liver and can take your drivers license, opioids, you read the news. Nobody has ever ODed from pot and it does wonders for chronic pain, I would have let him off too.
I led a full life, got hurt a bunch, scars to prove it.
Could have a handicapped ticket, could be taking opioids by the handful, could be self-medicating with health destroying booze.
I choose the lesser of the weevils.
Under the principle of limited federal government, I would argue that it should not be a federal law anyway. Leave it up to the states.
Fully Informed Jury Association:
https://fija.org/
I firmly believe that the nationwide move(s) to legalize pot is being done as a way to disqualify Americans from legal gun ownership/use.
Well, we have legalized entrapment these days in support of civil asset forfeiture.
Senora Guevara sat on a jury that nullified a drug case last year.
Our state Bureau of Investigation police used an undercover agent to beg some guy for 3 months to sell him his prescribed painkillers. He eventually sold him one. One pill.
Sent it to grand jury. Sought to prosecute.
Jury said to get this fucking bullshit out of here.
Do your job and investigate real crimes instead of manufacturing this garbage.
Every “terrorist” case you see today is the same thing. Police or FBI are the ones radicalzing people. Amp them up to do something and then offer material support. Then arrest and break their arms patting themselves on the back.
That’s what they did in Garland. That’s all they do.
“Just Say No” has gone full circle. It only took what, 35 years?
Provide for the common defense.
PROMOTE, not provide, the general welfare.
Secure liberty to current and future generations.
Then get the bleeding EF out of Americans’ lives.
Javonnie McCoy in Atlanta … let me guess …
Not that it matters … but the whole “pot,” “alcohol,” “firearms” thing should devolve to “responsibility.”
I don’t care what he smokes, what he drinks, how many guns he has, what his attitude towards President Trump is, how he feels about the cops – his ACTIONS are all that are important.
“Your rights extend to the end of my nose.” is what the expression used to be.
Other than possessing a pound of weed (which isn’t really alot – think: pound of butter, pound of brass, pound of steak) did he cause another citizen harm?
If he harmed someone he should be prosecuted for that – and, apparently, the jury felt that he didn’t (harm another).
The “War on Drugs” is another “Full Employment Act” for lawyers, therapists, psychologists, parole officers, piss-checkers, and other parasites.
izlamo delenda est …
I guess I am going against the wind. I am very proud to say I have smoke pot. The smell of it makes my nose run. Smoking of any kind is not welcome in my home.