TheAgitator.com
Charlie Lynch Sentencing Postponed
Monday, March 23rd, 2009A federal judge in Los Angeles this morning postponed the sentencing of a man who emerged as a key figure in the national debate over medical marijuana, saying he wanted additional information about a reported change in the Justice Department’s policy regarding such prosecutions.U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu asked prosecutors for a written response from the Justice Department about its position on medical marijuana prosecutions in light of recent comments from Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr.
Holder said last week that the Justice Department under President Obama had no plans to prosecute dispensary owners who operated within their state’s law.
Wu said he did not believe that any change in policy would affect the conviction of Charles Lynch, 47. But the judge said he wanted to consider any new information about the policy before imposing sentence.
Sounds to me like Wu’s forcing Obama’s hand, here. And good for him. Obama has kept his campaign promise to call of the raids and respect local law on medical marijuana. But he shouldn’t get a pass on allowing pending outrages like Lynch’s case to go forward, either.
Here’s Reason.tv on Charlie Lynch:
This is good news. Might there be a significant downward departure from sentencing guidelines in this case? I spose thats the best that can be hoped for. I doubt they would reverse a conviction and let him go, tho it would be nice.
Thanks for the video link – SLO county and Morro Bay were my old college stomping grounds.
I’m back home in Canada now, but I’ll never forget the beauty of central coastal CA and the sweet, down-to-earth people that lived there.
The cops, on the other hand, seemed to live in a different universe. Hostile, nosy, incompetent, and pure unthinking muscle where there brains should be. And the overlap in jurisdictions was ridiculous. Morro Bay deputies would patrol the same area as the Los Osos sheriff’s department, the SLO cops would range out all up and down the coast, and CHiPs were freaking everywhere doing jack shit for people (like myself once) who were stranded and needed help.
I once (after a personal stakeout) got the plate number of a woman who had broken into my car and stolen a bunch of clothes and expensive textbooks I needed for school. I called the cops and they took down the info. When I called back a few months later, they told me my case was closed due to lack of leads. When I asked about the info I had provided them, they denied knowing anything about it. Assholes.
Needless to say, I did very poorly that symmester. The local weed was first-rate, though.
What do you fine folks figure?
I’d say two to one he goes the wrong way again.
I’d take a move in the right direction at even odds.
Do we know that they have stopped the raids? It’s only been two months since the last raid. Were they on a faster pace than that before?
I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood, even though I’m skeptical of the efficacy of such.
[...] the end of this post, you can watch a great video by Drew Carey (Go Sounders!) about Lynch and one of his patients. [...]
@Phelps: Well, we only know there haven’t been any raids since Holder clarified their stance. Whether there were raids planned during that time that have since been canceled nobody could know. I guess we have to give them the benefit of the doubt though.
I think this is a great decision by Judge Wu. He is at least attuned to the recent developments in federal policy, and seems to want to correctly apply the law as currently enforced. We have to see where this one goes of course, but at least he didn’t unceremoniously slam the door on Charlie yesterday.
P.S. — Wasn’t Wu the guy who peed on The Dude’s rug?
Finally, Obama does something right (from my perspective). This is good news – the judge is looking for an excuse to impose a lighter sentence, if any. At the very least, he wants to keep his job and does not want to be overturned… is Wu’s position elected?
We are working on getting a medical marijuana bill in front of Florida’s legislators. God bless Charlie Lynch!
Charlies’ got a shot at justice, hooway! I wike Wu’s weasoning a whot.