The role of the jury in a marijuana prosecution

George Washington University law professor Paul Butler has an important op-ed in The New York Times, Dec. 21, 2011 in defense of Julian P. Heicklen, a retired Penn State professor, who has been an indefatigable marijuana legalization crusader for years. Heicklen distributed information about the jury nullification power to passersby near the court house in New York City. Federal prosecutors are prosecuting him for the felony of jury tampering and insist that the First Amendment has nothing to do with his conduct.

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Young, Black and Seized in New York

Nicholas K. Peart writes in The New York Times about being stopped and frisked by the New York city police five times in the five years since his 18th birthday. He's Black. Sometimes a horrid truth is so simple, so eloquent and so heart-breaking.

I was stopped and frisked by the police in Philadelphia while simply walking down the street a block from my house. It was 1969, I was 19, and I had long hair and beard.

Today, some of my best friends are former cops. I greatly admire cops who are professionals and respect the very hard, challenging work that many of them do in serving the public. But as I look inside in my heart, I see I harbor a deep seated contempt for cops as a stereotype.

Now, I am very safe from cops. My silvery gray hair is neatly barbered, my white face is clean-shaven, my clothes are in good repair, as is my car. I live in a "good neighborhood," and, at my age, I am rarely out late at night. As I say, now, I am safe from cops -- because of my race, my class status, and my age.

But to state what should be obvious: the protection of the U.S. Constitution of "the right of the people to be secure in their persons. . . against unreasonable searches and seizures" (4th Amendment) which are among "the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States (14th Amendment) not to be abridged by any State law are NOT supposed to kick in only for the old, white, conformist-looking or middle class!

Today, we mark the passing of Vaclav Havel, and honor the courageous man who challenged the Communists in Czechoslovakia; a man sent to prison four times before he became that nation's first modern democratically elected President. Throughout most of my life, during the "Cold War," Americans were keenly aware of the evils of the Communist police states.

As a young man, I imagined that everyone behind the Iron curtain was also keenly aware of and resentful of their police state, and looked forward to replacing it. Who would continue to tolerate the invasion of liberty of an arrogant police arbitrarily seizing people? However, perhaps I was as naive about this? (Perhaps as naive as was Vice President Richard Cheney imagining the turning of the Iraqi people against the regime of Saddam Hussein upon an invasion by American troops.)

My reaction to Nicholas K. Peart's op-ed reveals how much I have inured myself to the constancy of police abuse of their power.

It is a mark of triumph that the American police have so veiled their invasions of our dignity, our privacy and our liberty that the invasions are blurred and come into our focus only rarely, such as with publication of an op-ed such as Nicholas K. Peart's.

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Wisconsin politician uses veterans as stage props, won't provide medical care

Gary Storck has a strong op-ed published in The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin criticizing Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald for not supporting a medical marijuana bill that includes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a condition for which marijuana may be recommended. But he and the governor "adorned" their Christmas tree lighting ceremony with veterans, and the tree is dedicated to veterans.

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Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio accused of failing to investigate sex assaults

The office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is being criticized for failing to investigate reports of sexual assault in Arizona municipalities that it policed in recent years, according to The New York Times. Arpaio prided himself on degrading and humiliating the prisoners held in his custody. He maneuvered to acquire the title, "America's Toughest Sheriff," and used the sobriquet to sell books and attract publicity. His mistreatment of prisoners has brought investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

I debated him on a radio program about 20 years ago regarding his indifference to the inhumane treatment of prisoners in his custody.

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27-years in prison, but declared innocent!

Thomas Haynesworth, 46, was the declared innocent by the Virginia Court of Appeals on Dec. 6, 2011, reports the Washington Post. He was released from prison last year after being imprisoned for 27 years having been convicted in three cases of rape and acquitted in a fourth (charges in a fifth case had been dropped), always insisting that he was innocent.

In 2005, former Virginia governor Mark Warner (D) ordered a review of cases in which DNA analysis of biological evidence might clarify the identity of offenders. Evidence in two of Haynesworth's convictions cleared him, and pointed to convicted rapist Leon Davis, who resembled Haynesworth and lived in the same neighborhood. After that, prosecutors agreed to review the other cases and concluded that the victims had wrongly identified Haynesworth.

This is a tremendous achievement by Virginia's system of justice. In many, if not most, jurisdictions, the attitude to correcting wrongful convictions is that expressed by former Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue Terry (D), "Evidence of innocence is irrelevant."

I commend Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) for joining Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project in the effort to ask the court to declare Haynesworth innocent.

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