Pubdate: Thu, 12 Dec 2002
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Herald Company
Contact:  http://www.dailyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/107
Author: Tony Gordon

ILLNESS NO EXCUSE FOR USE OF MEDICINAL MARIJUANA, COURT RULES

A Lake County judge ruled last week that Illinois is not ready for the
concept of medicinal marijuana.

At least not in the case of Brenda Kratovil, 41, who is charged with growing
25 7-foot-tall pot plants behind her home at 9905 Oak Forest, Beach Park.

Kratovil suffers from glaucoma and is virtually blind after 40 surgeries
during the last 20 years to treat the condition.

There is plenty of medical evidence that smoking marijuana helps relieve the
pain from the disease. While several states and Canada allow people to
possess marijuana for that purpose, Illinois is not among them.

Vernon Hills attorney David Stepanich asked Circuit Judge Mary Seminara
Schostok to allow the jury in Kratovil's upcoming trial to consider what he
called a "medical necessity" defense - the jury could find Kratovil did
indeed possess the marijuana, but that her condition made it all right to do
so.

"While I agree there is no precedent for such instruction to the jury, I
believe it is a question that the courts in this state are going to have to
deal with sooner or later," Stepanich said. "The use of cannabis (what
lawyers and state legislators call marijuana) provides her with relief from
her discomfort and that relief is not available through any other means."

Assistant State's Attorney Dan Shanes, chief of the drug prosecution
division, was opposed to Stepanich's request because he saw it as making the
odious concept of jury nullification a legal option in the Kratovil case.

Jury nullification occurs when a jury disregards clear evidence of a
defendant's guilt and decides a case based on considerations that have no
legal justification, such as the race, character or status of the victim or
the accused.

Supporters of the concept say it allows juries to achieve "true justice" by
acquitting a defendant when the evidence proves him guilty. However,
opponents point to the shameful activities of juries in the South during the
1950s and 1960s, when white men accused of killing blacks were set free by
juries that disregarded the law.

"I do not know if I can think of a greater threat to the criminal justice
system than the idea of 12 randomly-selected individuals deciding what the
law is and what the law is not, who it applies to and who it does not,"
Shanes said. "The system depends on everyone following the law - police,
lawyers, judges, juries and defendants."

Schostok said she could find nothing in the law that would allow her to give
the instruction to a jury, and denied Stepanich's request.

Stepanich said he would research the possibility of appealing the judge's
decision prior to the Feb. 18 start of Kratovil's trial. He predicted the
issue will not go away anytime soon.

"You have a class of people who are suffering and are without blame in
developing the condition from which they are suffering," Stepanich said. "We
were dealing in new territory with our motion, but I think it is appropriate
and important for courts in Illinois to consider the concept of
compassionate use of the drug."
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