prison

Court rules on legality of pot possession in prison settings

October 23, 2019 by San Quentin News Contributer

Felony violations out but rules violations remain

—By, Alfred King, Journalism Guild Writer

Possessing small amounts of marijuana in a California prison is no longer a felony, a state appeals court has ruled.

The court ruling was based on Proposition 64, which legalized recreational use of marijuana in California. “Possession of less than one ounce of cannabis in prison or a similar penal institution is not a felony,” ruled the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Sacramento.

Prisons spokeswoman Vicky Waters released the following statement: “ We will evaluate the decision with an eye towards maintaining health and security within our institutions.”

Inmates are still banned from smoking or ingesting marijuana in state prisons, the California Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation has emphasized.

The court’s decision set aside the convictions of five inmates who had been convicted of weed possession inside prison, which led to more time being added to their sentences, NPR reported June 14.

“ We will evaluate the decision with an eye towards maintaining health and security within our institutions.”

“If you’re doing two years on a robbery, it does seem like a lot to have eight years added for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana,” attorney Dan Olsen told FOX 40 News Sacramento.

The appellate courts 20 page opinion was written by Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye. It said the Attorney General’s Office “Takes a huge leap” arguing that possessing small amounts of weed is legally banned in prison, despite plainly worded changes to California law. “The argument flies in the face of the plain language of the statue and common sense,” the ruling said.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office argued before the court that the new law was absurd and would legalize the use of a controlled substance in prisons and encourage drug smuggling.

Many in the legal community admit that the court’s ruling has caused some con- fusion, NPR reported.

Nitrogen gas could be new method for executions

August 8, 2018 by Sergio

California Death row

Nitrogen gas may be the next method of state-sanctioned executions, according to The New York Times. Many states are considering the gas as an alternative to the controversial use of other lethal drug combinations.

“25 percent of millennial-age American men think asking a woman who is not a romantic partner to go for a drink is harassment,” according to a recent survey by The Economist/YouGov reports The New York Times 1-17-18.

The change in execution method comes on the heels of lawsuits alleging botched attempts with lethal injections, which were supposed to be more humane than the electric chair or gas chamber.

Execution teams have experienced difficulties obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections. However, experts question the efficiency of using nitrogen as a feasible solution because there is no existing scientific data.

“The total drug-overdose deaths was 64,070 in the 12 months through January 2017.” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27, 2017

“If and when states begin carrying out executions with nitrogen, it will amount to the same type of experimentation we see in the different variations of lethal injections” lawyer and expert on lethal injection at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic Jen Moreno told the New York Times.

Any state, federal or military prison that experiments with the nitrogen gas as an executional method will be scrutinized as a test lab, the article said.

An Alabama execution team was accused of puncturing the bladder of a prisoner as well as opening an artery during an attempt to find a vein suitable for their lethal injection.

In response to the still-existing need for a more viable solution, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama have now authorized the use of nitrogen gas as a means of execution.

2017’s low executions only 23

San Quentin News World Travels

Texas executes Mexican regardless of disapproval

Tennessee schedules three executions

War correspondent and filmmaker reflects back on his fatal mistake

June 11, 2018 by Achilles

Donovan Webster

One thoughtless mistake traumatized many lives and landed Donovan Webster in prison, according to his account in AARP The Magazine. Webster was a writer, war correspondent and filmmaker, until he caused a fatal crash one night in August 2014.

Webster was driving intoxicated down a curvy mountain road, when he sideswiped Wayne T. White’s car, causing it to be crushed by an oncoming 18-wheeler. Webster had an alcohol blood level of 0.10 percent, according to the article. The legal limit is 0.08.

“We lived in a small town. Everyone knew who I was, and everyone also knew my wife. And when I went to prison for killing a man, she became the public face of our family and my deed. It shamed her, unbearably so,” Webster wrote.

As a war correspondent, Webster witnessed bloody conflicts and beheadings in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. He was part of a team sent to Southeast Asia after the 2004 tsunami. Those memories accumulated.

“Inside the zone, we all wore surgical-style masks. If you didn’t tiny particles of dust and rotting human flesh blown on the wind would attach themselves to your teeth and tongue and the roof of your mouth,” Webster said, about the conditions immediately after the tsunami.

He was diagnosed three times with post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychiatrists prescribed Webster a litany of medications for anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia. He stopped taking the meds, which included Valium, Xanax, Lexapro and trazodone, and started drinking instead.

Webster never saw his drinking as a problem, but gradually, it overtook him, he said.

That drinking led to the fatal crash that took White’s life. White was described as an invaluable member of the community. He was a farmer and churchgoer with a spouse, children, and grandchildren.

“My son and daughter are divided between wanting to love me and wanting to walk away from all the pain,” Webster wrote.

Following almost two years in prison, Webster faced a broken family, no money and no job opportunities. Now that he’s out, he is engaged in self-reflection and wrote that he has “powerful remorse” for his crime.

“But I have realized that there’s some great power in being around long enough to comprehend that no matter the damage we’ve done, a new door will open,” Webster concluded. “No matter what age you are, staging a comeback is only a matter of taking the rest of your life seriously and making the next smart move, and the next.”

http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/