STRONG PLEAS FOR LENIENCY FOR MEDICAL POT ADVOCATE

Attorneys for convicted medical marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal are asking
a federal judge to sentence their client to probation and community service
instead of the five-year minimum prison term his charges would bring.

The matter will come before Judge Charles Breyer next Wednesday.

Rosenthal, 58, of Oakland was convicted Jan. 31 of federal cultivation charges.

At the heart of the motion is a portrayal of Rosenthal as an atypical
marijuana cultivator who grew the substance out of humanitarian concern for
suffering patients, did not financially profit from the activity, and
believed his actions were legal, based on state law and advice from public
officials.

His lawyers, who filed their motion Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of California, aren't the only ones requesting that
the judge be lenient.

Included in the motion are two supporting letters: one from eight of the 12
jurors who convicted Rosenthal and another from California Attorney General
Bill Lockyer.

After the trial, some of the jurors came out against their own verdict when
they discovered that Oakland had deputized Rosenthal as an official
supplier of a city-approved pot dispensary.

"We feel strongly that Mr. Rosenthal deserves uninterrupted freedom because
we convicted him without having all the evidence," the jurors' letter reads.

Lockyer wrote that considering "the conflict between California and federal
law governing the legality of possessing marijuana for medicinal purposes,
I urge you to impose the minimum sentence allowed under the federal
sentencing guidelines."

Rosenthal attorney Dennis Riordan said the motion asks the judge to employ
a legal "safety valve" provision to escape the five-year mandatory minimum
set by the federal sentencing guidelines.