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(PICTURES- Akron at Penn State College Football) |
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| − | + | Courts going soft on pot-smokers and sellersChanges in attitudes have made jail sentences less likely in marijuana cases.August 02, 2014|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning CallAlan H. Oren was at home in Upper Mount Bethel Township when state police <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Chritian-Louboutin>Chritian Louboutin</a> showed up a couple years ago and did something that, in his words, "wasn't too cool."Acting on what Oren believes was a tip from a neighbor, troopers searched a shed near his mobile home, finding 9 ounces of marijuana, a digital scale, sandwich bags and two pipes, according to court records."It was kind of rough on me, man," Oren, who is 55 and now lives in Pen Argyl, said in a recent interview. "They were looking at putting me in prison for a year. I mean, for what? For supposedly selling a bag of weed."Oren's June 2012 arrest underscores how Pennsylvania has proven resistant to the pro-pot politics that have triumphed in such places as Colorado and Washington state, which have legalized marijuana. But the ultimate result of his case speaks to another reality: that even as the state's war on marijuana continues, not many defendants even among those accused of dealing pot are ever sent to prison for it.Though Oren was charged with a felony drug offense, he ended up plea bargaining down to a misdemeanor marijuana-possession charge. His ultimate punishment? Eight months of probation.Outcomes like Oren's are common, a Morning Call review of marijuana prosecutions shows.In 2013 and 2014, seven in 10 cases of possession with intent to deliver marijuana in Northampton County concluded without the defendants spending any time in prison, court records reveal. Not one of the 54 cases produced a state prison sentence, with three months the typical jail term in the 16 instances in which prison was handed down.In Lehigh County, a sample of 20 marijuana delivery cases from around the same time period demonstrated similar results. Seventy percent of them also saw no prison time, and no one was sent to state prison."We're not jumping up and down saying this guy should go to jail," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, who nonetheless opposes recreational marijuana.Or as veteran Allentown defense attorney Gavin Holihan put it: "A defendant would have to work hard to go to jail for marijuana."That makes former football star Austin Scott's case atypical.Scott, a former Parkland High School and Penn State running back, is serving six to 23 months in Lehigh County Jail after pleading guilty to selling small amounts of marijuana to undercover officers last year on four occasions. The sentence, handed down in May by Judge Robert Steinberg, shocked Scott's attorney, who had hoped for probation and has since asked the judge to reconsider.In court, the now 29-year-old Scott told Steinberg that when he sold the pot, he felt it was "a little thing" that allowed him to make a few dollars and feed his own use of the drug."This is not a little thing," Steinberg shot back. "This is a felony."That's true, but polling shows that the public has become increasingly uncomfortable with that.In October, Gallup reported that for the first time in its surveys, a clear majority of Americans supported legalizing marijuana, with 58 percent in favor compared with 39 percent against. The first time <a href=http://www.radiorcs.com/page.php?sale=Kate-Spade-Bow-Bag>Kate Spade Bow Bag</a> the question was asked, in 1969, only 12 percent supported legalization.A poll in Pennsylvania in February showed that 48 percent of state voters backed the legal use of marijuana for adults, versus 42 percent who opposed it. Just 15 percent believed Pennsylvania's pot laws should be kept the same or made harsher than they are today, the Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics in Erie found.That's a fact of life that Northampton County drug prosecutor Tatum Wilson had been thinking about as she prepared for a trial this week in which she was going to ask a jury to convict a Hanover Township man of selling marijuana. One of her concerns: that even if jurors found she proved her case, they'd acquit the defendant anyway because only weed was involved.Wilson won't have to worry. On Friday, 21-year-old Fawad Anwari pleaded guilty to marijuana delivery, receiving one to 23 months in county prison from Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden.Though Wilson otherwise had been prepared to go to trial to prove Anwari sold pot, she knows the risks of that firsthand.As a former public defender in Philadelphia, Wilson said, she tried a marijuana delivery case in which the jury came back with a not-guilty verdict. Talking to jurors afterward, they were "incensed" that authorities had pursued the charges, Wilson said."One actually said to the prosecutor, 'We wasted our time for this?'" Wilson remembered.But the law is the law, and Wilson said that as an assistant district attorney, she can't look the other way when she believes someone has broken it."Just because it is marijuana and people don't think it is serious, it is still against <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Michael-Kors-Fulton-Flat>Michael Kors Fulton Flat</a> the law," she said.1 | | | Featured ArticlesMore: | |
Revision as of 00:31, 26 September 2014
Courts going soft on pot-smokers and sellersChanges in attitudes have made jail sentences less likely in marijuana cases.August 02, 2014|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning CallAlan H. Oren was at home in Upper Mount Bethel Township when state police <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Chritian-Louboutin>Chritian Louboutin</a> showed up a couple years ago and did something that, in his words, "wasn't too cool."Acting on what Oren believes was a tip from a neighbor, troopers searched a shed near his mobile home, finding 9 ounces of marijuana, a digital scale, sandwich bags and two pipes, according to court records."It was kind of rough on me, man," Oren, who is 55 and now lives in Pen Argyl, said in a recent interview. "They were looking at putting me in prison for a year. I mean, for what? For supposedly selling a bag of weed."Oren's June 2012 arrest underscores how Pennsylvania has proven resistant to the pro-pot politics that have triumphed in such places as Colorado and Washington state, which have legalized marijuana. But the ultimate result of his case speaks to another reality: that even as the state's war on marijuana continues, not many defendants even among those accused of dealing pot are ever sent to prison for it.Though Oren was charged with a felony drug offense, he ended up plea bargaining down to a misdemeanor marijuana-possession charge. His ultimate punishment? Eight months of probation.Outcomes like Oren's are common, a Morning Call review of marijuana prosecutions shows.In 2013 and 2014, seven in 10 cases of possession with intent to deliver marijuana in Northampton County concluded without the defendants spending any time in prison, court records reveal. Not one of the 54 cases produced a state prison sentence, with three months the typical jail term in the 16 instances in which prison was handed down.In Lehigh County, a sample of 20 marijuana delivery cases from around the same time period demonstrated similar results. Seventy percent of them also saw no prison time, and no one was sent to state prison."We're not jumping up and down saying this guy should go to jail," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, who nonetheless opposes recreational marijuana.Or as veteran Allentown defense attorney Gavin Holihan put it: "A defendant would have to work hard to go to jail for marijuana."That makes former football star Austin Scott's case atypical.Scott, a former Parkland High School and Penn State running back, is serving six to 23 months in Lehigh County Jail after pleading guilty to selling small amounts of marijuana to undercover officers last year on four occasions. The sentence, handed down in May by Judge Robert Steinberg, shocked Scott's attorney, who had hoped for probation and has since asked the judge to reconsider.In court, the now 29-year-old Scott told Steinberg that when he sold the pot, he felt it was "a little thing" that allowed him to make a few dollars and feed his own use of the drug."This is not a little thing," Steinberg shot back. "This is a felony."That's true, but polling shows that the public has become increasingly uncomfortable with that.In October, Gallup reported that for the first time in its surveys, a clear majority of Americans supported legalizing marijuana, with 58 percent in favor compared with 39 percent against. The first time <a href=http://www.radiorcs.com/page.php?sale=Kate-Spade-Bow-Bag>Kate Spade Bow Bag</a> the question was asked, in 1969, only 12 percent supported legalization.A poll in Pennsylvania in February showed that 48 percent of state voters backed the legal use of marijuana for adults, versus 42 percent who opposed it. Just 15 percent believed Pennsylvania's pot laws should be kept the same or made harsher than they are today, the Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics in Erie found.That's a fact of life that Northampton County drug prosecutor Tatum Wilson had been thinking about as she prepared for a trial this week in which she was going to ask a jury to convict a Hanover Township man of selling marijuana. One of her concerns: that even if jurors found she proved her case, they'd acquit the defendant anyway because only weed was involved.Wilson won't have to worry. On Friday, 21-year-old Fawad Anwari pleaded guilty to marijuana delivery, receiving one to 23 months in county prison from Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden.Though Wilson otherwise had been prepared to go to trial to prove Anwari sold pot, she knows the risks of that firsthand.As a former public defender in Philadelphia, Wilson said, she tried a marijuana delivery case in which the jury came back with a not-guilty verdict. Talking to jurors afterward, they were "incensed" that authorities had pursued the charges, Wilson said."One actually said to the prosecutor, 'We wasted our time for this?'" Wilson remembered.But the law is the law, and Wilson said that as an assistant district attorney, she can't look the other way when she believes someone has broken it."Just because it is marijuana and people don't think it is serious, it is still against <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Michael-Kors-Fulton-Flat>Michael Kors Fulton Flat</a> the law," she said.1 | | | Featured ArticlesMore:
