ROSENTHAL RETRIAL POSSIBLE

Lawyers for medical marijuana champion Ed Rosenthal asked federal Judge
Charles Breyer for a new trial Tuesday after two jurors came forward to say
their ability to deliberate was compromised by advice from an outside attorney.

Rosenthal juror Pamela Klarkowski testified that fellow juror Marney Craig
consulted with an attorney friend during the trial who said she could not
vote "her conscience." Klarkowski said the issue first came up when the
pair was carpooling home to Sonoma County.

"We were traveling north and Marney said, 'Do jurors always have to follow
the law? Don't they ever have the opportunity to make a decision based on
conscience?'"

Klarkowski responded that jurors had taken an oath to weigh the evidence
given, but added, 'Maybe you have a point.'" Craig then said she had "real
questions" and would like to "call an attorney friend to ask about this
point of law." "I said if you do, let me know what you find out," testified
Klarkowski.

The next day on their way back into The City, Craig said her friend had
told her to "do as we had been instructed, do as we had been told," said
Klarkowski, a nurse in Marin Courty.

"Given instructions from the judge and all the evidence from prosecution,
which was pretty tidy, I felt that was it, I didn't have much choice," she
added.

Medical marijuana is legal in California and eight other states but is not
recognized as medicine by the federal government.

After the trial, a majority of the jurors said they would have acquitted
Rosenthal if they had known his pot growing operation had been authorized
by the city of Oakland, one of many facts related to the medical uses of
pot not allowed into the courtroom.

The defense's case Tuesday was complicated by the fact that Craig invoked
her Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination, fearing she
could be held in contempt for refusing to obey Breyer's orders that she not
discuss the case with outside experts during the trial. The government
could give her immunity but prosecutor George Bevan said that was unlikely.

But Dennis Riordan, the lawyer for Rosenthal, said the case for a retrial,
while highly unusual, was strong.

"Any external evidence like that is a basis for a new trial," Riordan said.

Attorneys for Rosenthal also argued the jurors had been given bad
information. While the evidence was strong that Rosenthal had a warehouse
full of pot plants that he made no attempt to hide, jurors could have gone
the route of "jury nullification," which would have allowed them to acquit
based on their belief that the crimes charged should not be criminal offenses.

Rosenthal, a 58-year-old writer and High Times columnist, is scheduled for
sentencing in early June. He could face anywhere from five years to 20
years in prison. Judge Breyer is not expected to rule on the new trial
request for at least a week.

On Tuesday, Rosenthal's wife Jane Klein was giving friends advance copies
of his new book, "Why Marijuana Should Be Legal."