Texas jury jails man 35 years for marijuana possession

marsmellow

marsmellow

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Texas jury jails man 35 years for marijuana possession
By Stephen C. Webster
RawStory.com
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Link

For being caught with just over a quarter pound of pot, 54-year-old Henry Walter Wooten will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, thanks to a jury in Tyler, Texas.

His prosecutor, Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance, originally sought a sentence of 99 years over the 4.6 ounces of marijuana police found in Wooten's vehicle, according to published reports.

Wooten was reportedly caught smoking pot within 1,000 feet of a day care center, within the radius of a so-called "drug free zone." Tipped off by the smell, police would later search the man's vehicle, only to discover his cannabis stash and a digital scale, according to The Tyler Morning Telegraph.

Wooten, who was convicted of two felonies in the 1980s, was also accused of marijuana possession in a drug free zone in 2008, the paper noted. Drug free zones, or perimeters around schools, playgrounds, churches and other selected institutions or organizations, mandate significantly stronger penalties for anyone caught with illegal substances on the wrong side of the boundary. They were passed in the 1980s amid a surge in the popularity of "crack" cocaine, which the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was later found to have aided the distribution of.

The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based thinktank, reported in 2006 that drug free zones have done little to enhance public health or safety and have instead disproportionately targeted minorities, according to the Associated Press.

"We just hope [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] can free up room for this menace to society; maybe the state can release a child molester or serial arsonist to find a cell for Wooten," Houston Press scoffed in a Friday blog post.

"The fact is that most of you who are reading this article will probably believe that sentencing a person to prison for 35 years for the possession of a non-toxic, non-addicting, all natural substance that has proven anti-cancer capabilities is not really protecting society from anything dangerous," opined a post on the Texas NORML forum. "He might have been stupid choosing his location to medicate, after all, it was Tyler, 'Texas', but nobody should spend a day in a steel cage for medicating, much less their entire life or 35 years."

Wooten’s sentence is identical to the punishment dealt to Alejandro Arreola, who was given 35 years in jail by a jury in Del Rio, Texas for his involvement in a multimillion dollar marijuana smuggling ring. Arreola, according to reports, transported over 24 TONS of the stuff into the United States. His accomplice, Casey Bob Hutto, got 24 years.

The U.S. State Department claimed earlier in March that Mexican marijuana cultivation escalated some 35 percent in 2009, while the Mexican military's interdiction efforts decreased in the face of more dangerous substances like methamphetamine. Houston and the surrounding areas are well-known drug trafficking zones for the Mexican marijuana cartels and a significant portion of marijuana consumed in the state can be traced south of the border.
 
This is so horrible and wrong. What the fuck was wrong with that jury?
 
marsmellow said:
Wooten’s sentence is identical to the punishment dealt to Alejandro Arreola, who was given 35 years in jail by a jury in Del Rio, Texas for his involvement in a multimillion dollar marijuana smuggling ring. Arreola, according to reports, transported over 24 TONS of the stuff into the United States. His accomplice, Casey Bob Hutto, got 24 years.
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That just seems...disproportional...it is even more unjust that those high level traffickers will probably enjoy protection and smuggled contraband once in prison while this guy will be old and on his own.

Overzealous prosecutors, dumb juries, and impotent judges makes for some limp justice.
 
You guys might not be aware, but Tyler Texas is one of the most racist and corrupt municipalities in the entire world; and that's no joke.

One of my friend's sisters was killed by a Tyler ambulance driving 100mph down a city street without its siren or lights on, and a Tyler jury found the ambulance driver not liable for the death. That's just one example out of many-- lots of fucked up things happen in Tyler, on a daily basis. It's kind of common knowledge here in Texas, but the town's reputation isn't really well known outside of the region.

The white people in Tyler (especially the judges and police) fucking hate anyone in the town who's not white. Its disgusting.
 
What a fucking crock of a shit :X Fucking Texas.... :| Backwards to the point of inbred retardism...
 
Ive heard of how bad tyler texas is before, getting caught with a roach will definitely get you jail time, around here getting caught with 5 ounces would get you 2 years probation. such a pity.
 
I wonder what race Henry Walter Wooten is.

Also, aren't the feds suppose to come in and crack down on completely corrupt and racist local governments?
 
Juries don't have to follow the judge's instructions. If a law is a bad law then a jury has a duty to reach a verdict of "innocent". That's how it was in the old days when the US had a constitution.
 
wow you can get as little as 5 years for man slaughter and for pot 99? wtf has this world come too='(
 
Huaca said:
Juries don't have to follow the judge's instructions. If a law is a bad law then a jury has a duty to reach a verdict of "innocent". That's how it was in the old days when the US had a constitution.
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Actually it's pretty much the opposite. The jury has to do what the judge says, but that has no bearing on the sentencing; on the contrary a judge can completely reverse & ignore the jury's recommendation, because that's exactly what it is, a recommendation.
 
It is all supposed to be checks and balances I thought. For example, a judge could nullify a jury verdict by declaring a mistrial but at the same time the jury can convict of a lessor or greater charge or declare innocence bc the law is seen as unjust (which the judge did not have to declare a mistrial). Also, before mandatory sentencing guidelines (enacted by legislatures) judges had lots of discretion even after the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Please let me know if I am mistaken, I certainly am no lawyer.
 
That guy certainly got fucked over, but what the hell was he doing smoking there when he's already sitting on two felony convictions?

If I have a bunch of felonies on my record and I need to smoke, I'm moving somewhere where it's decriminalized and/or they have medical marijuana laws. I'm not smoking it in some bogus zone in Tyler in my car. That's just monumentally stupid.
 
That is unbelievably wrong and unjust, seriously, a QP of fucking weed?! Who could honestly send a man to jail for 35 years over this? I really, really feel for this guy.
 
I believe we are all in agreement here that this is wrong on so many levels but what are we to expect from a state where they execute the mentally handicapped and also execute more people faster than anywhere else in the U.S.
 
^Its worse than a third world country down here in a lot of ways, no joke. Like in pervasive, in-your-face, everyday ways from healthcare to employment-- its just a fucking awful place to live, unless you're white and in the top 1% income range.
 
My dad was born in Tyler.

This case is bullshit though. They've started using the whole drug-free/school zone thing in SF too to crack down on the open-air shit.
 
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