Editor's Note: The article below from The Daily Chronic alludes to this, but an article in The Spokesman-Review stated this a little more directly: "Throughout the five-day trial, defense attorneys were not allowed to argue that the Greggs and Firestack-Harvey had medical marijuana cards from doctors. Nor were they allowed to discuss the apparent shifting tides in attitude to marijuana nationwide and the creation of a legal market in the state," the article reported.Â
The Daily Chronic explained, "Because marijuana is illegal under federal law, the government exercised its prosecutorial discretion to exclude all evidence from trial related to medical necessity and compliance with state law."
The Spokesman-Review added, "[Attorney Jeff] Niesen said that will change at sentencing, where attorneys will be able to bring up 'all the arguments we couldn’t use in court.'"Â
Three remaining Kettle Falls Five defendants found guilty of manufacturing less than 100 plants, likely to appeal
SPOKANE, WA – In an unexpected verdict Tuesday, the jury in a widely watched federal medical marijuana case from eastern Washington State, known as the Kettle Falls Five, acquitted the three remaining defendants of all but one charge of manufacturing less than 100 marijuana plants.
The charge carries no mandatory minimum sentence and defendants Rhonda Firestack-Harvey, 56, her son Rolland Gregg, 33, and daughter-in-law Michelle Gregg, 36, remain free until sentencing on June 10th at 10am.
In a prosecution and week-long trial that cost roughly $2 million tax dollars, the Obama Administration aggressively pursued marijuana trafficking charges against a family of patients who claimed to have been growing for themselves in full compliance with Washington State’s medical marijuana law. The Department of Justice (DOJ) chose to try them in defiance of a recent Congressional ban on DOJ interference in the implementation of state law.
