San Diego Mayor Urges Jurors To Reject Federal Law in Pot Dispensary Case

Says, "It's time, like with Prohibition, to step back and say this was a stupid thing to do"

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has injected himself into a federal criminal case against the operator of a medical marijuana dispensary, intensifying his standoff with federal prosecutors on cannabis enforcement issues.

Filner's urging jurors who'll be chosen for the trial to reject federal law in favor of state statutes under a centuries-old legal concept known as "jury nullification"-- whereby jurors can refuse to convict people under laws they believe should not be applied.

H/T deified

Comments

[triclops]

Finally, a reason to like Filner, and he's only been a politician for decades.

[Firstname]

This took a lot of guts from Mayor Filner. San Diego is a military town politically held hostage by huge amounts of federal money and the feds have pulled out all the stops there in their misguided "war on medical marijuana patients". Nowhere in California have they been more outrageously fighting against public will. They have inflicted undue harm on thousands of medical marijuana patients who depend on this valuable medication. They have enjoyed the full support of local law enforcement who love getting those big overtime pays from supporting DEA swat actions against the citizens they are sworn to protect. They have also intimidated local politicians with loosing funding of pet projects - until now. One politician has finally said: "ENOUGH!"

Thank you Mayor Filner! We need more brave politicians like you to come forward and do the right thing.