Washington DC settles in death of paralyzed medmj patient Jonathan Magbie

City Settles in Death Of Paralyzed Inmate – washingtonpost.com
The mother of a quadriplegic inmate who died in 2004 after suffering breathing problems at the D.C. jail has reached financial settlements with the District government and his care providers, her attorneys disclosed yesterday.

The settlements were reached in the controversial death of Jonathan Magbie, a 27-year-old Maryland man who was paralyzed from the neck down and used a mouth-operated wheelchair.

Magbie died four days into a 10-day jail sentence for possessing marijuana, which he said he used to ease the discomfort caused by his disability. The jail infirmary, where he was housed for several days, wasn’t equipped with the ventilator he needed to breathe at night.

Magbie’s ordeal began Sept. 20, 2004, when D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin sentenced him to jail after he pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana. D.C. police found a gun and marijuana in Magbie’s pockets in April 2003 after stopping a vehicle driven by a cousin of his. Magbie admitted buying the marijuana, records show.

Magbie’s mother was furious that the judge did not give her son probation, the typical punishment for first-time offenders. Magbie, paralyzed since being hit by a drunk driver at age 4, had no criminal record. Retchin told a judicial commission that she sentenced Magbie to jail because he said he would continue to smoke marijuana to alleviate his pain. She also told the commission that she was unaware that he needed a ventilator to breathe at night. The commission cleared Retchin of wrongdoing.

Judge Judith Retchin killed Jonathan Magbie, just as surely as if she had put a plastic bag over his head.  How do you look at a paralyzed man in pain and decide that keeping him locked up without pain medicine is just the sort of incentive he needs to stop taking his pain medicine?  Magbie’s only crime was being honest to the judge about his medical use.  Had he lied and told her he’d never touch the “demon reefer” again, his lack of criminal record and disability would have gotten him probation (well, maybe – Magbie was black) and he’d be alive today.

It should be noted that the people of Washington DC by a 69% majority approved a measure to allow medical marijuana use.  I guess that means that Bob Barr also helped kill Jonathan Magbie, since he authored the Barr Amendment that killed DC’s medical marijuana initiative, and the Congressmen who approved it by voice vote are accomplices.