April, 20 2011, 03:26pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
ASA Media Liaison Kris Hermes 510-681-6361 or Dr. Mollie Fry & Dale Schafer 530-333-1607
Clemency Sought for Medical Marijuana Patient, Cancer Survivor Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
Obama gets failing grade from patient advocates who will protest his re-election kick-off in SF tomorrow
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
A clemency petition was filed this week in the federal Eastern District Court of Sacramento and sent to President Obama in an effort to avoid or shorten the imprisonment of Dr. Mollie Fry, a physician, breast cancer survivor and medical marijuana patient sentenced to 5 years along with her husband Dale Schafer, also a patient and an attorney. Fry and Schafer were arrested and convicted without a defense under President Bush, but they appealed their sentence which was vigorously fought by the Obama administration in the Ninth Circuit. Fry and Schafer's sentences were upheld in November and in March they were ordered to surrender to federal authorities on May 2nd.
"On behalf of Dr. Fry and her five children," read the clemency petition filed by Fry's attorney Laurence Lichter. "I beseech you to release Judge Damrell and others from participating in this tragic result not by pardoning her behavior but by commuting her sentence to one that does not involve the brutality of incarceration." The government has already harshly punished Fry and Schafer by revoking both their licenses to practice. "My parents don't deserve to go to prison," said Heather Schafer, the couple's oldest daughter and a mother herself. "It's incredible that President Obama would spend precious taxpayer dollars to lock up patients despite their compliance with state law."
Beginning Thursday, April 21st until their surrender on May 2nd, Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer will be available for interviews and can be contacted at 530-333-1607.
Fry and Schafer, who live with their family in Cool, a small town in El Dorado County, California, were raided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2001, despite approval from local law enforcement to cultivate medical marijuana. Nothing happened in the case until June 2005 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gonzales v. Raich that federal marijuana laws could be enforced even against qualified patients. Two weeks later, Fry and Schafer were indicted charged with manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Both defendants were denied a medical defense despite being legal patients in compliance with state law and were convicted in 2007. In order to obtain the mandatory minimum 5-year sentence, the government added up multiple years of harvests to arrive at more than 100 plants.
Advocates are blaming the Obama administration for failing to develop a federal policy that avoids costly prosecutions and harmful sentences, which have continued unabated under his administration despite a supposed change to the country's enforcement policy in October 2009. On the campaign trail, Obama said he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue." However, as president, Obama has conducted more than 100 aggressive SWAT-style raids in at least 5 states, resulting in more than 30 new federal prosecutions. President Obama has also continued to vigorously prosecute his predecessor's cases -- like Fry and Schafer -- rather than remanding them to state court where defendants have a chance to defend themselves.
Patient advocates are bringing their message of medical marijuana policy reform to President Obama's re-election kick-off campaign in California. President Obama will be in San Francisco over the next couple of days and advocates plan to stage a lively rally on Thursday at 8am outside of a breakfast fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel (125 3rd Street). The rally coincides with the release of a report card decrying Obama's record on medical marijuana.
Americans for Safe Access is the nation's largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
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Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
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