So, you want to be a Marijuana Law Reform Activist (Part 3)
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 5:56 pm | By: Missippi Hippy
“First thing… kill all Lawyers.”
William Shakespeare (paraphrased) from Henry VI
There! Did I get your attention?
No, I am not advocating violence and murder. That would be counter productive, as well as is making threats of violence, but, it seems that the courts and law enforcement in our country have been getting out of hand. In some cases the police have made arrests using violent techniques, in some cases ignoring citizen initiative laws, killing beloved pets and sometimes people, destroying homes, property and lives, all for a little flower that grows everywhere… which incidentally is good for medicine, is not physically addicting, and you couldn’t overdose on it if you smoked your weight of it in 5 minutes, grows naturally almost everywhere on earth, hasn’t killed anybody since… FOREVER and, woe upon woe, has the side effect of making you feel good.
In part 1 of this series I offered a few suggestions on getting started as an activist. In part 2 I dealt with finding your own activist social support group. In this third part I will offer some suggestions on how to be an activist in our court system.
7. The Activist Trial Juror
I get summoned for jury duty about every 2-3 years. I couldn’t even avoiding it by moving from Mississippi to Minnesota. I still get those summons. As a juror I could not choose the type of trial I would be sitting, but I always wanted to be a juror in a marijuana possession or distribution case, and I’ll tell you why.
According to the Fully Informed Jury Association, the purpose of a jury is not to punish an individual for infractions of the law, but to protect an accused fellow citizen from government tyrannical abuse of power. Your vote, as a citizen juror, in a trial is a measure of public opinion on the law itself and many lawmakers are likely to take the matter of repealing marijuana prohibition laws more seriously if jurors would hand over more acquittals.
As a juror you have the absolute right to vote “Not Guilty” if you believe an existing law is unconstitutional, out of date, or just plain bad. This is called “jury nullification”. Something like this recently happened in a Colorado medical marijuana case in which the jury handed over an acquittal.
As a juror, if you believe that a law is being applied just to make the accused “an example of what could happen”, it is within your right as a citizen juror to vote not guilty.
So, as for me. I believe the existing laws prohibiting the use of marijuana for responsible adults are… just plain bad. If I ever have the opportunity to be the juror on a marijuana charge, you can bet your last dollar that I will vote… Not Guilty!
You, as a juror, cannot be punished for a not guilty vote. The judge’s instructions to jurors are simply advice based upon this own interpretation of the law and you can’t be punished for not following it. Don’t let pressure from the judge, prosecutor, other jurors or other minor officers of the court sway you from voting your conscience.
8. The Activist Accused
It is unfortunate that any of us should ever go through this. Who in the hell would want to be one of these! Not I, you, nor anyone else that I know of, but sometimes stuff happens.
The first thing I would have to ask is this… did you inadvertently waive your rights as Russ, in so many “Stupid Stoner Stories” has pointed out? Well, if you did, shame on you, but perhaps all is not lost. I will tell you this… keep your mouth shut and hire, if you can afford one, and you should, a good trial lawyer.
Be proactive in your defense. Ask to sign the relevant paperwork, if applicable in your area, for a trial by jury immediately after being charged.
Do not accept an offer for a plea bargain no matter how forceful the prosecuting attorney may be. When they say that it will be easier if you take the plea bargain, what they really mean is that it will be easier for them to convict you of a crime.
There is something called the “Informed Jury Defense”, in which activists will make a deliberate attempt to educate jurors about their right to vote their conscience on the law itself as I mentioned above.
This first step to get this Informed Jury Defense is done by educating the public on the extent to which jurors have power . The second step is to educate the jurors who will hear your case.
The first step can be done with the power of the media such as talk shows, letters to the editor, leaflets or advertising, to name a few. Do as much of this as you can afford.
The second step requires enlisting the help of friends and supporters… This is where your local NORML chapter or other activists comes in. On the day of jury selection they, your friends, stand outside the courtroom and hand out a leaflet (which you or your friends print up) explaining the powers of the jury and all the things mentioned above, so that they, the jury, can be fully informed. Give this leaflet to all the potential jurors as they enter the room. This may mean some early mornings for some of your friends. Perhaps your trial will come to an end with a hung jury, and the court decides not to prosecute further. It only takes one juror to do that. Then there is “the acquittal“.
9. The Activist Grand Jurist
First of all, find out how you can become a member of a grand jury. Some locations have a sign-up sheet to volunteer for grand jury duty, and if so, sign-up if you can and are willing to do so.
The grand jury is an independent body, who not only investigates a crime and starts the prosecution (persecution in some cases) process, but also stands to protect it’s fellow citizens from unfounded criminal charges. They stand between the accused and the prosecution as protector. The grand jury protects the citizen from unjust, unreasonable or unfair government laws.
As a grand jurist, you have the right to question anyone involved in the case. As you question the arresting officer, start with the “probable cause”. In my humble opinion, “he had glassy eyes”, “he was acting strangely” or “their electric bill was too high” to name a few, are not probable cause for arrest or a warrant to search, no matter what a judge signing a warrant may say. If this is the reason for the arrest, then, as a marijuana law reform activist, I would be compelled to go with… no indictment.
Once again, in my opinion, laws prohibiting the use of marijuana fall into the category of “unjust, unreasonable or unfair”.
In closing, I would just like to say this… should you decide to follow through and become an activist… whatever you do for the cause of marijuana law reform, follow the advice of the Roman Goddess Nike… “Just Do It”.
I’ve been reading your blogs for a while now, mainly from my Blackberry so I just got the Mississippi connection in the article. Not to mention now that I see you’re Missippi Hippy. I live in Mississippi in an urban Progressive stronghold. Not many Progressive thinking pot smokers here. We’ve been underground way too long. I’m a small business owner and very active in the community. A lot of people are finally coming out of their shells. I don’t know if you’re still in Mississippi or not but shoot me an email and let’s talk about what we can do here. I promise you, I know how tuff it is here, but if there’s ever been a time to crawl out of our holes it’s now. You should be able to see my email address but if not just post back here and I’ll get it to you.
I lived in Gulfport from 1995 to 2004 after I retired from the military. I could not abide the “good ol’ boy” network… and I was not one o’ dem, which made me an outsider to begin with. After dealing with the Klansmen (I’m a race traitor to them) for 9 years, plus the shooting where I worked, plus my bouts with PTSD. I left for quieter places… Minnesota.
Ya still wanna talk… missippi_hippy@yahoo.com
Oh yeah, some coeds from BSU (Bemidji State University) gave me this moniker, at first Mississippi Hippy… now it’s closer to the way it is pronounced by the folks from my birth home… West Virginia…. Go Mountaineers!
A small correction:
Nike is the Greek (not Roman) Goddess of Victory.
Totaly agree, too many times we smokers try and get out of jury duty, but thats where we need to be the most, where we can truly make a stand against these laws. We can effect more lives and change more minds being on a jury for one week, than most could do in a years time. We have to take our place on juries, we have to show courts and prosecuters that we will not let them run marijuana smokers thru the system without any thought to whats right or wrong. The law is wrong everyone knows it, and jury duty is one huge way to show them we wont take it anymore, we wont take the discrimination of our culture, and thats what they truly want is our culture gone, this isnt a War on Pot this is a war on a way of life and we have to make a stand in the judical system to stop it.
So next time you get that little letter in the mail, instead of rushing to find any reason to get out of it, be happy that you will have a chance to change the way this country treats our fellow smokers. Or you may even get a chance to put a real criminal away, so dont run from your dutie, embrace it with a sence of pride. Just think, someday there will be a time when these cops and prosecuters wont even try to screw a fellow smoker, simply because they know no jury will convict a pot smoker anymore!
Not Guilty is what we are and not guilty is what I will vote if its you in front of the judge, I just hope you all do the same when its me up there instead!