|
Written by Ed Rosenthal
|
|
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 05:24 |
In the late nineties, Will Foster was convicted of growing a 5x5 ft. marijuana garden in the basement of his Tulsa, Oklahoma home. I testified at the trial and upon landing again in Oakland and getting in a car to go home, a radio program was discussing the Tulsa race riots of 1921, in which the entire black population of the city was either murdered or escaped. It was by far the most blatant example of ethnic cleansing ever perpetrated in the United States. A shiver went up my spine. Shortly afterwards, I learned that Will Foster was sentenced to 93 years in prison.
About two years later the Oklahoma Supreme Court decreed that Will’s sentence was figured wrong. Instead of the cruel and unusual punishment of 93 years he was originally sentenced to, he would serve a sentence of only 20. Four and a half years after Will was taken away I received a phone call from him, from a phone not far from the prison.
He was freed, and due to his degenerative arthritis, chose to move to California to escape persecution as a medical marijuana user. He was allowed to move to California as long as his probation was continued in California and he had a sponsor in the state, MOI. Will and his daughter Anna lived with me for almost a year. In that time he had established himself enough to get an apartment, find work, and renew his life. Three years went by and when it came time for California to renew his 12-year probation, the state decided that because California would never give a person more than three years probation for weed, they would not be extending the probation period. Oklahoma asked him to come back, even though he had established a home and a life for himself in California.
Can you imagine going back to Oklahoma and its strict marijuana laws, being watched, being tested, all while having degenerative arthritis which only marijuana soothed? For years Will tried to negotiate with the Oklahoma authorities, all to no avail.
In October of 2005, an alarm went off in a property that Will rented. He went to see what was going on and when the police came, an ID check showed that he had a probation warrant in Oklahoma and he was arrested solely on the probation charge. After sitting in jail for almost six months, Judge Daum decided that sending him back to Oklahoma would be cruel and unusual punishment and voided the warrant in California. Will was released and renewed his life once more.
Imagine the disruption of being dragged away and placed in suspended animation for months, everything is either lost or stored. All relationships are placed on hold and then, to come out after the state says “we didn’t really mean it, sorry”.
All was going fine until Will got into a really negative part of his relationship with a former lover who convinced local authorities and the DEA that they would find something big in a raid of his home. They didn’t, but they did arrest Will and then the issue of the Oklahoma warrant came up again.
What would have been a trivial case has become a life threatening exercise in injustice. Will has been in jail for a year, awaiting trial. If he loses the trial, which includes mostly marijuana charges, the warrant is sure to come into play, and if he wins it may.
There are technical questions as to whether this new warrant is still subject to the judge’s order, and whether Governor Schwarzenegger’s signature on the warrant overrides the judge’s discretion. A different judge than Daum is deciding this case.
This is where it stands folks, Will is in jail in Santa Rosa, CA and he needs your help.
There are several ways you can help him:
Courtroom dates and times will be posted at www.medicalmarijuanaofamerica.com. Donations to his legal defense are greatly appreciated. Make out checks to Chris Andrian, Atty. and mail to P.O. Box 196 Jenner, CA 95450
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
