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SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge on Thursday refused a prosecutor's request for a gag order in the trial of pro-marijuana author and activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said there's no evidence jurors have been biased by extensive media coverage of the trial so far.
The case is "part of a larger public debate, and he's not going to muzzle that debate," said attorney Jim Wheaton, the First Amendment Project co-founder and senior counsel who argued against the gag on Rosenthal's behalf.
Assistant U.S. Attorney George L. Bevan Jr. sought the gag order Wednesday after several consecutive days of intense coverage by local and national media. He feared the admonition that Breyer gives jurors every day about not reading or watching any media accounts of the case would be insufficient, and jurors' viewpoints would be swayed.
But Breyer said Thursday that Bevan hadn't demonstrated enough risk of bias to outweigh the damage a gag order would do to press and speech freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Rosenthal, 58, was among those arrested last February when Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided his home and his indoor marijuana cultivation site in Oakland, as well as the Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club in San Francisco.
He's charged with conspiracy, cultivation and maintaining a property for cultivation. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Despite Breyer's acknowledgment of the case's place in the bigger public debate over medical marijuana, the judge has barred all testimony and evidence showing Rosenthal was growing marijuana under the auspices of California law and Oakland ordinances. Federal law still bans all marijuana cultivation, possession and use, Breyer has ruled, and so mention of Rosenthal's motive is irrelevant and inadmissible.
In his unsuccessful attempt to get the gag order, Bevan cited a new billboard campaign by a coalition of medical marijuana advocates as evidence of the means by which jurors might become biased.
Even as Rosenthal's trial continued Thursday, that billboard campaign was being launched in Oakland. The billboards depict 8-year-old Ashley Epis holding a picket sign that reads, "My dad is not a criminal." Her father, Bryan Epis of Chico, recently was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for growing, using and providing marijuana under the auspices of state law.
Rosenthal's trial continues Wednesday, when Bevan is expected to conclude his case and Rosenthal's lawyers are expected to make their opening statement.
Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jan 2003
Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Website: East Bay Times - Contra Costa and Alameda county news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and commentary
East Bay Times - Contra Costa and Alameda county news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and commentary
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said there's no evidence jurors have been biased by extensive media coverage of the trial so far.
The case is "part of a larger public debate, and he's not going to muzzle that debate," said attorney Jim Wheaton, the First Amendment Project co-founder and senior counsel who argued against the gag on Rosenthal's behalf.
Assistant U.S. Attorney George L. Bevan Jr. sought the gag order Wednesday after several consecutive days of intense coverage by local and national media. He feared the admonition that Breyer gives jurors every day about not reading or watching any media accounts of the case would be insufficient, and jurors' viewpoints would be swayed.
But Breyer said Thursday that Bevan hadn't demonstrated enough risk of bias to outweigh the damage a gag order would do to press and speech freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Rosenthal, 58, was among those arrested last February when Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided his home and his indoor marijuana cultivation site in Oakland, as well as the Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club in San Francisco.
He's charged with conspiracy, cultivation and maintaining a property for cultivation. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Despite Breyer's acknowledgment of the case's place in the bigger public debate over medical marijuana, the judge has barred all testimony and evidence showing Rosenthal was growing marijuana under the auspices of California law and Oakland ordinances. Federal law still bans all marijuana cultivation, possession and use, Breyer has ruled, and so mention of Rosenthal's motive is irrelevant and inadmissible.
In his unsuccessful attempt to get the gag order, Bevan cited a new billboard campaign by a coalition of medical marijuana advocates as evidence of the means by which jurors might become biased.
Even as Rosenthal's trial continued Thursday, that billboard campaign was being launched in Oakland. The billboards depict 8-year-old Ashley Epis holding a picket sign that reads, "My dad is not a criminal." Her father, Bryan Epis of Chico, recently was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for growing, using and providing marijuana under the auspices of state law.
Rosenthal's trial continues Wednesday, when Bevan is expected to conclude his case and Rosenthal's lawyers are expected to make their opening statement.
Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jan 2003
Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Website: East Bay Times - Contra Costa and Alameda county news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and commentary
East Bay Times - Contra Costa and Alameda county news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and commentary
