|
No
Hemp,
No
New
Rights
for
Defendants
in
South
Dakota
11/8/02
Two initiatives championed
by South Dakota's one-man drug reform movement, Bob Newland, went down
in flames on Tuesday. An industrial hemp initiative was rejected
by 62% of the voters, and the attention-grabbing Amendment A, also known
as the Common Sense Justice Amendment, was defeated even more decisively,
winning only 22%, according to unofficial counts.
While the hemp initiative
received almost no attention, the Common Sense Justice Amendment, which
would have allowed defendants in criminal cases to argue the merits, applicability
and validity of the law, roused national interest, including a not unsympathetic
piece in the Wall Street Journal. But it also roused the state's
legal establishment, with defense attorneys as well as prosecutors denouncing
the measure as leading to legal chaos and anarchy. The two major
party candidates for Attorney General stood together to jointly oppose
Amendment A.
On the other side were Newland,
a coterie of hard-working volunteers, and Amendment A poster child Matthew
Duchenaux, a Lakota Indian who was arrested for smoking marijuana to ease
tremors caused by Multiple Sclerosis. Duchenaux's attorney's attempt
to raise a medical necessity defense was okayed by a circuit court judge,
but overturned on appeal. Duchenaux was convicted earlier this fall
and sentenced to probation. Newland and other Amendment A supporters argued
that it would have allowed Duchenaux to tell jurors that it was silly to
convict him. But South Dakotans weren't buying, despite Newland's
chilling last-minute presentation of legal horror stories inflicted on
South Dakotans by the criminal justice system.
Visit http://www.commonsensejustice.us
to read Newland's presentation on the issue.
-- END --
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Issue #262, 11/8/02
Editorial: More to This Vote Than Meets the Eye | Black Tuesday for Drug Reform | Arizona Steps Back as Decrim Initiative Loses, Anti-Reform Sentencing Initiative Wins | Legal Pot in Nevada? Not This Year | New York: Pataki Victory Swamps Dems, Golisano, Marijuana Reform Party, Libertarians | Ohio "Treatment Not Jail" Initiative Runs Into Drug War Buzzsaw | No Hemp, No New Rights for Defendants in South Dakota | Wisconsin: Libertarian Thompson Gets Ten Percent | DC Voters Overwhelmingly Approve Treatment Not Jail Initiative | Massachusetts Voters Tell Reps to Support Marijuana Decrim | San Francisco Voters Ask City to Look at Growing Its Own | FAMM Victory: Amendment to Cap Federal Guideline Sentences for Low-Level Drug Offenders is Now Law | Colombian Campaign for Drug Legalization | Anti-Prohibitionists Meet Human Rights Advocates and Political Leaders at Albania Congress of Transnational Radical Party | Newsbrief: Nordic Prohibitionists Beginning Counter-Campaign Supporting UN Drug Conventions | Web Scan: Forbes on Hope Taft, Newsday on Tony Papa, New Scientist on Cannabis, Raich v. Ashcroft Lawsuit Docs | Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision, Tulia, Salvia Divinorum | The Reformer's Calendar
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