OAKLAND MARIJUANA ACTIVIST LOSES APPEAL IN FEDERAL COURT

A federal appeals court has let stand Oakland "Guru of Ganja" Ed
Rosenthal's marijuana conviction and one-day prison sentence, finding
his defense at trial wasn't unfairly curtailed.

Attorney Michael Clough in January had argued that Rosenthal was
denied the ability to present witnesses who would corroborate his
claim that he honestly, reasonably believed he had been deputized by
the city of Oakland to grow marijuana for area medical marijuana
cooperatives and was protected from federal prosecution.

But 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Richard Paez and Sidney
Thomas, joined for this case by U.S. District Judge David Ezra, of
Hawaii, noted on Thursday in an unpublished memorandum -- a ruling
that can't be cited as precedent -- that "none of the offenses at
issue require knowledge of the law or intent to violate the law to
sustain a conviction." That is, it doesn't matter what Rosenthal was
thinking: "(T)he government needed only to prove that Rosenthal knew
that he was manufacturing marijuana," the panel wrote.

"It was interesting it took them so long to just develop a memorandum
- -- to me, that indicates there was a lot of decision on their part,"
Rosenthal, 64, said Friday, vowing to seek an "en banc" rehearing by
a larger appellate court panel. "We feel that we have a winning
issue, so we're going to do what we have to do in order to get it
adjudicated correctly."

Federal agents arrested Rosenthal and others Feb. 12, 2002, raiding
his home and other sites including a West Oakland warehouse where he
was overseeing marijuana cultivation. His February 2003 conviction on
three counts of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy was overturned
by a 9th Circuit panel in April 2006 because of juror misconduct, but
federal prosecutors re-indicted Rosenthal that October on the
original charges plus nine more; the trial judge dismissed those nine
new charges in March 2007, issuing a rare finding of "vindictive
prosecution." The government reprosecuted the marijuana charges
anyway, even though Rosenthal already had served his first
conviction's sentence and so couldn't be punished any more. He was
re-convicted in May 2007 of marijuana cultivation and distribution.