PROGRESS REPORT OF SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 from
Julian P. Heicklen
Jury Nullification
On October 19, 2009, I started distributing fully informed
jury information at the U. S. District Courthouse in Manhattan,
NY. Antonio Musumeci (Bile) photographed the event. We
were both given citations: Bile for photographing on federal
property in violation of U. S. Regulation 41 C.F.R. Sec.
102-74.420, and me for distributing literature on federal
property in violation of U. S. Regulation 41 CFR Sec. 102–
74.415(c).
Bile contacted the ACLU which challenged his citation in
court, his case was dismissed, and the U. S. government paid
expenses and a punitive reward for violating Amendment I of
the U. S. Constitution. I ignored my citation and did not make a
court appearance. Instead I repeated my appearance 14 more
times at the same courthouse, piled up 11 citations, and ignored
them all. The U. S. attorney dismissed all the charges, thus
negating the regulation. However, he filed a forged grand jury
indictment against me for jury tampering. See
http://www.personal.psu.edu/jph13/Wood_4_17_12.html for evidence
of forgery. After 17 months of pretrial correspondence
(http://www.personal.psu.edu/jph13/US._v._JPH_in_Manhattan_NY_04_17_12.html),
the federal court dismissed the case in April, 2012, because the prosecution
could produce no tampered juror, even though at least twice it
sent an undercover agent to try to entrap me.
Meanwhile, I had been distributing fully informed jury
literature at 39 other federal courts and was cited at 3 of them.
The citations were dismissed or ignored. Also I distributed the
literature at 8 county courthouses. There was considerable
publicity, and Tyranny Fighters was organized. Many other
individuals joined me or ran their own distributions at
courthouses in FL, NJ, PA, TX, NH, and probably elsewhere. In
NH every county courthouse was targeted. In FL, James Cox
and Mark Schmidter distributed continually and often.
Likewise regular distributions occurred in PA. Jim Babb
and George Donnelly accompanied me on the first visit to the
federal district courthouse in Allentown, PA. George was
arrested for photographing and resisting arrest. His case was
settled in a plea bargain. Then George and his family moved to
NH, the free state. There were no arrests nor interactions with
the guards on several subsequent distributions in Allentown.
In Orlando, FL Chief Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. issued court
orders forbidding distributing literature on the Orange County
courthouse property, except for two small free speech zones
away from pedestrian traffic. The Fully Informed Jury
Association (FIJA) disapproved of challenging the Orange
County Court order by arrest, claimed it would hurt membership
and fund raising, and asked us to obey the court order. I refused,
so by mutual agreement I dropped my membership, and we
discontinued our affiliation. Mark Schmidter and I continued to
distribute FIJA literature at courthouses in FL.
In Orlando, FL, both Mark Schmidter and I were arrested
on separate occasions for distributing information at the Orange
County (Orlando) Courthouse in defiance of court orders. Both
of us were found guilty of contempt of court by Judge Belvin
Perry, who issued the orders and was the judge and prosecutor
for the cases where we were denied jury trials. These decisions
now are on appeal in the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal
in Daytona Beach, FL. Also, we have sued the judge in a civil
suit in federal court under “42 USC § 1983 -Civil action for
deprivation of rights” for violation of our First Amendment right
of free speech.
Recently the NH legislature passed a law allowing juries to
be notified of the right to nullify the law. During these 3 years
at least 3 jury nullification trials have occurred.
Missoula MT District Court: Jury pool in marijuana case
stages ‘mutiny’
A funny thing happened on the way to a trial in Missoula
County District Court last week. Jurors – well, potential jurors ,
staged a revolt.
They took the law into their own hands, as it were, and
made it clear they weren’t about to convict anybody for having a
couple of buds of marijuana. Never mind that the defendant in
question also faced a felony charge of criminal distribution of
dangerous drugs.
The tiny amount of marijuana police found while searching
Touray Cornell’s home on April 23 became a huge issue for
some members of the jury panel.
No, they said, one after the other. No way would they
convict somebody for having a 16th of an ounce.
Reported on December 19, 2010 5:20 pm by GWEN
FLORIO of the Missoulian. Read more at:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/missouladistrict-court-jury-pool-in-marijuana-case-stages-mutiny/article_d6b1aaca-edfc-527f-ad11f1691fdc6e3b.html#ixzz27HukgVVC
New Hampshire Jury Acquits Pot-Growing Rastafarian
A jury unanimously acquitted Doug Darrell, a 59-year-old
Rastafarian charged with marijuana cultivation, after his lawyer,
Mark Sisti, argued that a conviction would be unjust in light of
the fact that Darrell was growing cannabis for his own religiousand medicinal use. More remarkably, Judge James O'Neill
instructed the jury that "even if you find that the State hasproven each and every element of the offense charged beyond areasonable doubt, you may still find the defendant not guilty if
you have a conscientious feeling that a not guilty verdict would
be a fair result in this case."
Full story reported by Jacob Sullum Sep. 14, 2012 1:00 pm
at: http://reason.com/blog/2012/09/14/new-hampshire-juryacquits-pot-growing-r
Minnesota farmer cleared in milk case
A soft-spoken Minnesota farmer was cleared of violating
state laws for distributing raw milk Thursday, a verdict
advocates for such foods called their first major legal victory.
After a three-day trial and more than four hours of
deliberation, a Hennepin County jury found Alvin Schlangen not
guilty of three misdemeanor counts of selling unpasteurized
milk, operating without a food license and handling adulterated
or misbranded food.
The trial highlighted a deep national divide between raw
milk advocates who contend unpasteurized dairy products can
relieve allergies and prevent illness and public health officials
who warn that raw milk can cause serious and sometimes fatal
diseases, such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria.
"It's a big step in the right direction," Schlangen, 54, said
Thursday, flanked by celebrating supporters. "I have a hard time
understanding how this basic freedom has been so hard to
maintain."
The raw milk debate emerged in Minnesota two years ago,
when eight people were sickened by E. coli bacteria in raw milk
that was linked to Minnesota producer Mike Hartmann.
Hartmann faces similar charges as Schlangen did and is
expected to be tried this fall. He also faces a lawsuit filed by the
father of a boy who got sick from drinking raw milk.
Schlangen, an organic egg farmer from Freeport, Minn.,
doesn't produce milk himself but operates Freedom Farms Coop,
a private club with roughly 130 members who buy various
farm products, including raw milk. Schlangen picks up the milk
products from an Amish farm and delivers them to members.
He was charged in 2010 after Minnesota Department of
Agriculture (MDA) inspectors discovered his products at
Traditional Foods, a south Minneapolis natural foods outlet.
Under Minnesota law, milk that hasn't been pasteurized (heattreated
to kill harmful bacteria) can be sold only in limited
amounts on the farm where it's produced. Schlangen, who
testified on his own behalf, maintained that he was operating a
private cooperative and not a business. He also noted that no one
got sick from the milk he distributed.
Assistant Minneapolis City Attorney Michelle Doffing
Baynes argued at trial that food safety laws are in place to
protect consumers, but declined to comment after the verdict.
Reportred by Abby Simons, Star Tribune. Updated:
September 20, 2012 -11:27 PM at:
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/170521646.html?refer=y
How all of this happened
All of this did not happen overnight. It took 3 years of
constant agitation to accomplish this. Plus I organized Tyranny
Fighters to participate in the program and spread the word. I
enlisted a legal advisory panel of over 30 attorneys and court
buffs.
I did everything I could to get as much publicity as
possible, both on the internet and in the conventional press. I
gave many speeches. Bile and I ran an internet radio program
on LWRN for a year. I was the host. He was the producer and
webmaster for the Tyranny Fighters web page and maintained it
during and after we discontinued the broadcasts.
Ultimately the NY Times ran an editorial and three full
column stories on the first page of the second section about my
jury tampering case. It listed this case as one of the 10 most
important cases to watch in 2012.
In just 3 years, we got hundreds of people distributing fully
informed jury literature at courthouses, enormous publicity, the
NH legislature to pass a law permitting the courts to notify the
jury of its right to nullification, at least 3 jury nullifications in
state courts, 2 federal regulations declared unconstitutional, a
federal court to declare it legal and permissible to distribute jury
information on federal property, especially at courthouses. And
we still have 2 court cases pending in Florida regarding court
orders infringing free speech rights.
Occupy Wall Street
It was not easy nor all fun. It required persistence,
publicity, patience, and support from many other Tyranny
Fighters. Which brings me to Occupy Wall Street. It has a
much larger following, more demonstrations over about the
same time period, much more publicity, and many more police
abuses than we had. Yet it has not been successful in
accomplishing much of anything except exposing police
malpractice.
The reason is that we had a one-issue project that we can
sell. Occupy is a hodge-podge of many different complaints, but
no reasonable solutions. What it really needs are jobs.
Demanding more taxes from the rich is not a solution. If it
could be effected, it should be used to reduce the national debt,
not feed the unemployed. Meanwhile it just aggravates the rich.
Blaming people for what went wrong will not lead to a solution.
Occupy Wall Street can be very successful, if it sticks to its
one main objective—jobs. In my opinion, there should be two
goals:
1. Legalize drugs and release the 40% of prisoners with drug-
related crimes. They will start legitimate businesses growing
and selling drugs and pay taxes on their sales and income.
Prison expenses will be reduced. Furthermore drug gangs
will vanish and violent crime will be reduced.
2. Demand that the federal and state governments invest heavily
in infrastructure repair, which is needed. This will put lots of
people to work, remove them from government subsidies, and
provide taxable income.
A $100 billion yearly additional investment in
infrastructure will produce about 1 million new jobs directly,
plus many more as result of the additional 1 million employed
and spending. This would reduce the unemployed from 12.5
million in August, 2012 to under 11 million. Recreational drug
users could add several hundred thousand additional legitimate
jobs, since there are an estimated 96 million people over the age
of 18 in the United States who have smoked marijuana
(http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/who-are-you-us-governmentstatistics-adult-marijuana-users).
All the other issues such as the wars, foreign policy, police
crime, trampling on the Constitution, abortion, gay rights,
women’s rights, illegal immigration, the death penalty, ersatz
money, irresponsible financial institutions, veteran benefits, etc
are important, but, except for ersatz money, they are not going to
destroy America immediately. The economy and the prison state
will.
Upcoming November election
The two major political parties are completely out of touch
with reality. Both of them support the war on drugs, the foreign
wars, and increases in the national debt (the Democrats by
increased spending, and the Republicans by reduced taxes).
Vote against them in the upcoming election by voting for a third
party or none of the above. Burning your ballot sends the
message that you are inconsequential and can be ignored. If
10% of the vote goes to not Republocrat candidates, the major
political parties will have to absorb your demands or lose in
future elections.
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE
THE PRICE OF JUSTICE IS ETERNAL PUBLICITY
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