While I may not approve of the lifestyle of Edward Forchion (July 12, "Is marijuana law in U.S.wrong? Let a jury decide"), or adhere to his religious practices, I do agree with his claim that jury nullification is the final, most forceful weapon against shortsighted and oppressive government regulation. 

    Jury nullification is the power of a jury to disregard the evidence presented at trial and acquit an otherwise guilty defendant because the jury objects to the law that the defendant violated or to the application of the law to that defendant. It is an indispensable political right in a free, self-governing republic. 

     Currently, jurors serving in New Jersey Superior Courts are left in the dark regarding their power and right to pass on issues of law and fact in criminal prosecutions. And although only three other state constitutions (Maryland, Georgia and Indiana) explicitly protect the right and power of juries to nullify the law, I would agree that the New Jersey Constitution implicitly recognizes jury nullification and commands that jurors be instructed regarding their proper function. 

     First, our state constitution contains a provision that details in plain language the principle that all political power originates with the people. Political power necessarily includes the authority to pass on the fairness of the law and to refuse to enforce those that are nonobjective, capricious or oppressive. 

    Second, the New Jersey Supreme Court has traditionally offered greater constitutional protections to individuals under the state constitution than those recognized under the Bill of Rights. Our state constitution's guarantees to a trial by jury, the right to counsel, protection of due process, and understandings of fundamental fairness should all include the right of a defendant in a criminal prosecution to inform those chosen to judge him of their power and right to nullify the law. 

     Third, our legal traditions militate in favor of instructing our juries regarding the ability to reject the law. Not only has the power been recognized at common law and during the American colonial period, jury nullification was also codified and guaranteed in this state's first Article of Rights and Privileges in the Constitution of 1844 in prosecutions for libel. 

      I would urge, therefore, that New Jersey jurors be informed of their right to be judges of both facts and law. In the alternative, I would recommend defendants be allowed to argue to the jury explicitly that it declare the law null. 

                      David Marcos Ragonese, esq 
                    dsragonese@aol.com
                      Haddon Heights
 

I know about "jury nullification" because of a field trip to Philadelphia that my parents took our family on in July 1976. I asked my mother, "Who's that statue on top of City Hall anyway?" She said William Penn. But when I asked who he was, she told me to look him up. 

Earlier that year, my parents had bought us the Encyclopedia Britannic, so I read about Penn and the trial of his life, which eventually led to the First Amendment. It was a very appropriate project; America's Bicentennial celebration was going full blast. 

Penn, a Quaker, was charged with illegally teaching a religion other than the king's official religion as taught by the Church of England. 

He pleaded with his jurors that it was his right as a human being to believe in whatever he wanted. 

The jury knew that was against the king's law, but it acquitted Penn, and its members suffered for their decision. The jurors were tortured, even denied food and water for days; still they refused to change their minds. 

Eventually the jurors were released, and the concept of "jury nullification" -- a jury's making a decision that appears to ignore the law -- was born. 

I remembered William Penn when I was arrested on Nov. 24, 1997. I knew as I sat in the Bellmawr police station, charged with a ridiculous crime, that I was going to openly advocate to my jury that it nullify the law. The law is wrong; no one should be imprisoned for possessing marijuana. 

The marijuana laws, or for that matter the whole "War on Drugs," are a violation of our Bill of Rights. I have never complied with the marijuana laws; compliance is acceptance. 

I have always regarded the laws as too intrusive. Who gave the State of New Jersey, the federal government or their stooge police agencies the authority to regulate what a citizen can put in his body? 

As a Rastafarian believer, I espouse the benefits of marijuana; thus I, too, am now going to face a jury because of my religious views -- just like William Penn. 

Although I have always taken this view, it wasn't until I became involved in the legalize medical marijuana movement that I decided to advocate breaking an unjust law. 

I've had people tell me that the only reason I'm squealing so loudly is because I was caught. So what? Do you think Betty Ford cared about having a drug treatment center before she got addicted to legal drugs that are far more harmful than marijuana? 

Jury nullification is a constitutionally acceptable function of a jury, but you can bet the prosecutors in Camden County who want to send me to prison for 30 years, don't want the jury to know that. 

The prosecutors don't want the jury to know its rights, but that's common for government workers. Whether they are Internal Revenue Service agents,  Environmental Protection Agency functionaries or workers in some other government agency, they believe that only what the government says is law is law. Yet the government is supposed to be ruled by the people. The people are sovereign not the Government! 

I'm Rastafarian. My religion recognizes the benefits of marijuana; it is a sacrament in our faith, so the marijuana laws violate my right to religious freedom. 

The Bill of Rights says Congress shall not make a law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Yet that is exactly what marijuana laws do to all whose religions regard marijuana as a sacrament. 

Why were christian, and catholics churches given alcohol exemptions during the last prohibition. Why are Native Americans allowed to use peyote? Because of their First Amendment rights. Yet I'm denied my right to smoke marijuana, which is far less addictive or dangerous than peyote, or alcohol. 

In 1997, Gov. Whitman signed a law making the intent to distribute 25 or more pounds of marijuana a first degree crime. I, as an open advocate of marijuana legalization, was one of the first individuals arrested under this law. This is the perfect avenue for jury nullification. 

Last year, I ran for Congress and the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders under the Legalize Marijuana Party ( www.tlmp.org ) banner as a way to reach my potential jurors. 

This year, I'm again on the ballot, for (NJ)  State Assembly in the 8th District, as well as for the Office of Camden County Freeholder. I will espouse the concept of jury nullification as well as marijuana legalization as ways to end the War on Us. 

  EDWARD FORCHION
njweedman@yahoo.com

Ed Forchion is running for two offices in November, but he doesn't think he is going to win.  In fact, he doesn't even want to win. 

Ed Forchion of the Legalize Marijuana Party is using his campaign to draw attention to his approaching drug trial. 

Representing the Legalize Marijuana Party, he is running for an Eighth District Assembly seat and a seat on the Camden County Board of Freeholders because, he said, it is the best way to reach potential jurors at his forthcoming trial in Camden County Superior Court. 

The last two years of Forchion's life have been consumed by his trying to convince people that he is not "just another black drug dealer." 

"I view myself as a freedom fighter with the dedication of Martin Luther King, the independence of Malcolm X," said Forchion, 35.  "But I will probably spend close to the amount of time in jail as did Nelson Mandela unless Jury Nullification is used." 

Forchion faces more than 20 years in prison and $300,000 in fines after being arrested during a drug raid in Bellmawr on Nov.  24, 1997.  He was charged with, among other things, possession with the intent to distribute more than 25 pounds of marijuana, which Gov.  Whitman had made a first-degree offense in August 1997. 

Forchion, a former cross-country truck driver, said he had, in the past, delivered marijuana to groups in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that he said used the drug for medical purposes.  He denies ever selling the drug for profit. 

On the day of his arrest, Forchion said, he knew a shipment of marijuana was to come in and had a hunch that authorities had their eye on the package.  So he went to the drop-off point, he said, to see what would happen. 

The Prosecutor's Office said Forchion and his brother Russell, 30, were arrested a short distance from the Bellmawr Industrial Park with 45 pounds of marijuana in their van.  Another man, Eric Poole, 41, who worked at the factory and who signed for the FedEx package containing the marijuana, was arrested at the park. 

Russell Forchion and Poole pleaded guilty to lesser offenses.  Russell was sentenced to seven years.  Eric has plead guilty but has not been sentenced yet! ? 

Forchion pleaded not guilty and said he would like to mount a defense based on jury nullification - under which jurors refuse to convict because they believe the law that a person is accused of violating is unconstitutional - and freedom of religion.  (Forchion is a Rastafarian and views marijuana as sacred in much the way that Christians, he said, view "the grapes" used to make the sacrament of Holy Communion.) 

Forchion has been appointed a private attorney because the Public Defender's Office refused to prepare a defense for him on those grounds. 

"Maybe it's because I'm so independent," he said.  "How can the government tell me what I can put in my body? I chose to use marijuana, it's my body!" 

Forchion, whose pretrial court date is scheduled for next Monday - the day before Election Day - said he had not met his attorney. 

"I should be allowed to say what I want to say in court," he said as he snacked on a hot fudge sundae during an interview.  He said he had smoked a marijuana joint before entering the restaurant and still got a craving for food when he was high, even though he said he had been smoking marijuana since he was 15. 

"I think I have a plan, if I could just find legal help," said Forchion, who stands 6 feet tall, weighs about 240 pounds, and wears dreadlocks and a long goatee.  Forchion describes himself as a "nerd" who likes to study the Constitution.  He said he had lived in anonymity, smoking marijuana every day, for years and would have continued to do so if not for his arrest. 

Aside from researching and preparing his defense, Forchion spends much of his time maintaining his "Legalize Marijuana Party" Web site and trying to draw attention to his cause by running for office.  He does not campaign much.  He has virtually no money and few campaign workers, but he said he sometimes handed out flyers and recently made a commercial that he said would be carried on a local cable station starting tomorrow. 

Annette Castiglione-Degan and Riletta Cream, the two Democratic freeholders running for re-election against Forchion and Republicans Orlando L.  Chandler and Joseph J.  Rosenello, said Forchion had the right to run for office, but they condemned him for preaching the legalization of marijuana. 

"It's outrageous to even say in a county that represents a city that we know is infested with drug activity," Castiglione-Degan said. 

"Certainly you can respect anyone's right to free speech - that goes without saying - but do I respect his position? Absolutely not.  As a mother of teenagers, as a teacher of teenagers, as a citizen, as an elected official - with any of the hats that I wear - I cannot accept that position or understand it." 

Forchion's wife, Janice, 38, the mother of two of his four children, said that she was not a marijuana user but that she did not understand "what the fuss is over weed that you can grow in your backyard." 

She said authorities should "go after cocaine, crack and heroin.  Those are the drugs that kill people." 

"If he goes to jail, who's the victim?" she asked.  "My kids are.  .  .  .  I don't think that's fair." 

Forchion said he realized that some people think he is crazy, but he called himself "a little eccentric." He said people used to consider his hobbies - collecting guns, buying exotic fish and growing marijuana - "neat," but now they view him differently.  I'm now seen as this radical person, when in fact I've always felt this way.  I just was never cornered by the Drug Warrior's before.  I'm just fighting back.