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March 16, 2007
Letter to an Editor
The following was just sent to the SF Chronicle which, considering that it's been at the epicenter of the medical marijuana movement for over ten years, has done a pathetic job or reporting it, let alone even demonstrating an understanding of what has been happening under their noses. That criticism applies to the previous ownership and even more so to the Hearst Organization which recently purchased the name
Today's chron, which also manages to frustrate attempts at linking to its jealously guarded news items, carried typically clueless stories on developments in both the Raich and Rosenthal cases...
San Francisco Chronicle
To the Editor
An even more convincing example of vindictive prosecution for daring to grow medical marijuana took place last year in Fresno when sixty-year-old Dustin Costa was convicted by a federal jury on the day before Thanksgiving. As proof that not all federal judges have similar views on either 'justice' or what their position entitles them to do, Costa, who, like Rosenthal, had no previous criminal record, and was charged with growing an equivalent number of plants, was sentenced to the fifteen year maximum by Judge Anthony Ishii, whose rulings throughout the trial defied ordinary logic while reflecting a scrupulous respect for all prosecutorial arguments.
Ironically, Costa was one of four people free on bail and defending themselves against state charges who were re-arrested after their cases were summarily transferred to federal jurisdiction following the pusillanimous Raich decision, also discussed in today's Chronicle.
Further evidence of systemic federal vindictiveness is that shortly after his conviction in February, Costa was transferred from Fresno to another county jail in Bakersfield for no apparent reason. There, he continues to await assignment to a federal prison while remaining even more completely isolated from visitors and supporters who have neither the wherewithal nor access to widely read media enjoyed by Rosenthal's supporters throughout his ordeal.
Equal access to equal justice? I don’t think so.
Sincerely,
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at March 16, 2007 05:22 AM