Jump to content

8000 Plants = 2 Years Probation In Michigan Federal Marijuana Case


Recommended Posts

 

DETROIT — A veteran judge originally appointed by Ronald Reagan has delivered a stunning sentence in a case involving thousands of marijuana plants grown by a farmer in Michigan.

In Lenawee County, 61 yr old Edward Schmieding enrolled in Michigan’s medical marijuana program (MMP) in 2010 to help him recover from throat cancer. He and his wife Linda began cultivating marijuana, and when the authorities arrested them they were in possession of over 8,000 medical marijuana plants.

The case went federal and was assigned to United States District Judge Bernard Friedman. On Tuesday of this week Friedman ruled that Edward would receive a penalty of one day in jail and 2 years probation; he gave Edward credit for a day already spent in custody and therefore the man will receive no jail time. Charges had already been dropped against his wife.

Judge Friedman was moved to give the extraordinarily light sentence to Schmeiding because of community and family outreach. Letters were written and submitted to the Court by Schmeiding’s attorney, Sanford Schulman. The court room was full of supporters, some of whom wept openly during the sentencing hearing.

“This is one that most screams out: This man deserves a break,” U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Neighbors, family and even an ex-wife of Schmeiding’s came to court to testify for leniency in sentencing. Tales of community service, a tough life in a house heated by firewood in the winter and generosity of spirit were enough for Friedman to ignore normal sentencing guidelines.

“It’s a bad thing that’s happened to you but you’ve lived a good life,” the judge reportedly said.

Recognizing that Schmeiding was an upstanding citizen and that he was not at the center of a distribution ring like “Pablo Escobar”, Assistant US District Attorney C. Barrington Wilkins made no objection to the abnormal sentencing.

Read more here

http://www.thecompassionchronicles.com/2013/06/26/8000-plants-2-years-probation-in-michigan-federal-marijuana-case/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well, that's refreshing. weren't these the people with the flower farm covered with greenhouses (filled with MMJ plants) near ann arbor??

 

so a federal judge will take community outcry and letters of support under advisement when ruling, but a Dr. recommendation, a states marijuana program or the thousands of scientific researchers that ratify the many medical benefits that can be received thru use are all biased lies and mentioning such falsehoods in a courtroom or in earshot of a jury will have you facing additional charges for contempt

 

what a backward, ignorant, insane system we have. it stuns me that we could ever get to this point. it's revolting were not revolting. we'd dump all the tea in the harbor before we'd give up a few extra pennies for taxes. but our rights, civil liberties and plain common sense are just handed away or ignored in courtrooms every day across America. I can see why there are so many "crazies" loosing it, throwing it all away over seemingly nothing, before starting the long climb to the top of the water tower carrying that high powered rifle.

society has been conspired against since the start. how else could all these injustices become so intertwined and effectively used against us. the press, the judges, the government, lobbists and corporations all work in unison to suppress/control us. we may not have started it, but were still ALL to blame. where's the outcry, protests, revolt?  inaction is still an action and we are a lazy bunch of sheeple being fed lies and propaganda. the cornerstone of the American diet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

DETROIT — A veteran judge originally appointed by Ronald Reagan has delivered a stunning sentence in a case involving thousands of marijuana plants grown by a farmer in Michigan.

In Lenawee County, 61 yr old Edward Schmieding enrolled in Michigan’s medical marijuana program (MMP) in 2010 to help him recover from throat cancer. He and his wife Linda began cultivating marijuana, and when the authorities arrested them they were in possession of over 8,000 medical marijuana plants.

The case went federal and was assigned to United States District Judge Bernard Friedman. On Tuesday of this week Friedman ruled that Edward would receive a penalty of one day in jail and 2 years probation; he gave Edward credit for a day already spent in custody and therefore the man will receive no jail time. Charges had already been dropped against his wife.

Judge Friedman was moved to give the extraordinarily light sentence to Schmeiding because of community and family outreach. Letters were written and submitted to the Court by Schmeiding’s attorney, Sanford Schulman. The court room was full of supporters, some of whom wept openly during the sentencing hearing.

“This is one that most screams out: This man deserves a break,” U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Neighbors, family and even an ex-wife of Schmeiding’s came to court to testify for leniency in sentencing. Tales of community service, a tough life in a house heated by firewood in the winter and generosity of spirit were enough for Friedman to ignore normal sentencing guidelines.

“It’s a bad thing that’s happened to you but you’ve lived a good life,” the judge reportedly said.

Recognizing that Schmeiding was an upstanding citizen and that he was not at the center of a distribution ring like “Pablo Escobar”, Assistant US District Attorney C. Barrington Wilkins made no objection to the abnormal sentencing.

Read more here

http://www.thecompassionchronicles.com/2013/06/26/8000-plants-2-years-probation-in-michigan-federal-marijuana-case/

KUDOS to this JUDGE.  I think they are finally realizing that this madness has got to stop and that NO natural Born UNited States citizens should be in jail for Anything Marijuana.

 

I think I might write this judege a letter for his decisions.   If only these fuxs in all these PA's office would wise up and stop wasting money on imprisonment over stupid shiet.  we could rebuild so many cities if we ended this foolish war on drugs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

KUDOS to this JUDGE.  I think they are finally realizing that this madness has got to stop and that NO natural Born UNited States citizens should be in jail for Anything Marijuana.

 

I think I might write this judege a letter for his decisions.   If only these fuxs in all these PA's office would wise up and stop wasting money on imprisonment over stupid shiet.  we could rebuild so many cities if we ended this foolish war on drugs. 

 

...but it's OK to send a legal immigrant to jail for it???????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Strange, Inexplicable, and Moving.

Days like this are why federal prosecutions are 97% wins and not 100% on all charges.

Diff from Duval case:  no ledger book showing 300k in sales, no firearms recovered, no deft with a prior drug felony  But that's all just my conjecture, I don't know the facts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea. This is a very compassionate decision on the Judges part.  It is also a good decision on the prosecutors part to allow it. The prosecution could fight that decision up the chain if they wanted to and they decided not to.

 

 Luck and circumstance and obviously living a long good community oriented life came into play.

 

 I would be doing backflips happy if I was only given 2 years probation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is great news and fantastic for the poor guy, although I did read they seized his farm.

 

Curious question, I thought there are Fed. min sentencing guidelines that the judges must impose, i.e. 5 yrs under 100, 10 yrs over 100.

I was curious about that myself.

 

The key may be the prosecutor.  If he (or the feds) don't question it, I could see how it could stand.  To me it looks like a true case of judicial and prosecutorial mercy.  Good for them, I think they did the right thing.  I wouldn't count on it happening again.

 

Dr. Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Doc i have to disagree i think we will see more case's and judge's doing it more and more they know the War is about to end and Marihuana or Marijuana is changing the world

 

As i knew it would someday it's a powerful Plant in many ways as we see here in this story

8000 plants.  That was mercy.

 

It would take a LOT of convincing to make me or many others in here think otherwise.  I can't even begin to think of the special circumstances that would allow that to be considered a medical grow under the MMMA, and federal law is pretty clear on the matter.

 

Dr. Bob

 

BTW, I am pleased he didn't go to jail over the plant, and while I believe legalization in inevitable, it isn't here now.

Edited by Dr. Bob
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best article of the day.

 

 I think I will call it "..and this little piggy went Weee Weee Weee all the way home.."

 

 It doesn't seem reasonable to me to hassle this guy at all.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/smokin-mad-police-knock-probation-sentence-for-michigan-farmer-caught-with-8000-pot-plants/2013/06/26/782233cc-deac-11e2-ad2e-fcd1bf42174d_story.html

 

 

Smokin’ mad: Police knock probation sentence for Michigan farmer caught with 8,000 pot plants

 

 

DETROIT — Probation for a southeastern Michigan farmer caught growing more than 8,000 marijuana plants is not “logical or reasonable” and sends the wrong message to people considering similar schemes, the head of an anti-drug task force said Wednesday.

 

Detective Lt. Robert Sinclair of the state police reacted a day later to the sentencing of Edwin Schmieding, who got an extraordinary break from a federal judge in Detroit.
 
Instead of prison, the Lenawee County man was placed on supervised release, or probation, for two years. He was arrested in 2011 after an investigation by a police task force in Lenawee and Hillsdale counties. Federal agents subsequently took over the case.

 

“It does not seem logical or reasonable to sentence a person growing this much marijuana to two years of probation, especially when it obviously was not for personal use but for monetary gain,” said Sinclair, commander of the task force.

 

“We will continue to pursue all criminal activity including illegal marijuana growing operations,” he said.

 

Schmieding, 61, began growing marijuana after raising cut flowers for years. His wife told police they wanted to sell it for use by people approved for medical marijuana, although large-scale production is illegal.

 

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said Schmieding, who is recovering from cancer, deserved a break. The marijuana was not considered to be high quality and many plants were immature.

 

“It’s inconsequential to me,” Sinclair said. “It’s marijuana, and it’s being grown for profit. That’s the way we look at it.”

 

Friedman met privately with attorneys before the court hearing. Assistant U.S. Attorney C. Barrington Wilkins said he recommended a prison sentence. He declined to elaborate.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An extra-ordinary one-time bounce that may be returned yet. So far deft S. won the lottery but the check could still bounce. When other juridictions ? the unbelieveable judical use of discretion, it may not be legally defensible and this judge may find himself the subject of a judicial sentencing investigation for ignoring minimum sentencing guidelines. The lucky sentence for S. is the equivalent of a hole-in-one from the moon and may be disallowed, and S. be resentenced within guidelines. If the Justice Dept. doesn't review this, it should. The sentence is both incredibly humane, and capricious. Judges don't have the power to make law in cases where everything is factually clear and guidelines set in place.

Edited by pic book
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The personal beliefs of the judge may be the answer to how did this farmer get so lucky.  

 

Friedman was in the news just yesterday.   Last night's news regarding the SCOTUS decision on the DOMA issue included a presentation regarding Michigan's prohibitions on gay marriage.  At the center of the discussion was a report that Friedman had invited and promised the gay rights advocates that he would rule on their issue once the Supreme Court ruled.  It was presented in such a way that it appeared he had already told them he was going to rule in their favor.   

 

I do not know any more about the judge than the brief news story last night.  Just thought I would add the bit of news about him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't believe any one should be put in a cage because of a plant.

 

However, what's good for one is good for all.

 

Maybe he should put put in a cage for the rest of his natural life.  Maybe his knowing enough of the right people in this instance shouldn't matter.

 

Brush up on your golden handshake, common folk.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...