Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK) Copyright: 2001 The Anchorage Daily News Contact: http://www.adn.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18 Author: Molly Brown Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) MARIJUANA CONVICTION REVERSED APPEAL: Jury Shouldn't Have Included Dead Plants In Pot Count, Judges Say. An appellate court Friday reversed the conviction of a Fairbanks woman found guilty in 1998 of felony possession of marijuana plants because the jury considered dead remnants -- stalk and root ball -- of her previously harvested plants when reaching its decision. Authorities had seized 19 live marijuana plants and 33 containers of marijuana stocks and roots from Carol V. Pease's house, according to the decision by the Alaska Court of Appeals. During her trial, the jury was told the 33 containers of dead plants were considered "plants of the genus Cannabis" for purposes of law, and that it didn't matter if the plants were dead or alive, according to the appellate decision. Pease was convicted of possessing more than 25 marijuana plants, a felony, and appealed the decision to the higher court. During the appeal, state attorneys argued that the word "plant" means those alive and dead. The court of appeals disagreed. "When someone asks a gardener how many tomato plants they have in their garden, the person posing this question is normally not seeking information about the number of stumps of dead plants remaining from previous years," wrote appellate court Judge David Mannheimer, author of Friday's decision. The court of appeals decided that when the marijuana possession law was changed in 1994 by the state Legislature, making it a felony to possess more than 25 marijuana plants, lawmakers targeted people with living plants. Pease had only 19 living plants, which would have constituted a misdemeanor. The law doesn't specify what stage of maturity the marijuana plant must be in, the decision says, but "makes sense only in the context of living plants." - --- MAP posted-by: GD