I, Rich Paul, have finally been sentenced after sitting in jail for seven weeks. My sentence is:
One year in jail – With good time and time served I should be out sometime around December 18th
Three years probation
Various fines about $2500
Is this sentence fair? Of course not. I’ve harmed no one. I provided good product at a fair price to an adult who wanted it. I wish that more people would do that rather than making their living ruining lives to be paid with stolen money.
I can hear the drug warriors thinking, “But weed is a gateway drug.” Oh, really? The government-worshipping drug warriors should be relieved to find out that when the government’s Institute of Medicine studied the gateway effect, they found no causal relationship between the use of cannabis and the use of harder drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin. Moreover, researcher and addiction specialist Todd H. Mikuriya, in his study entitled “Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol : A Harm Reduction Approach”, found that alcoholics who used cannabis were more likely to avoid relapse into the active use of these more dangerous drugs.
The “gateway effect” seems to be pretty well debunked. Spread the word!
I will be appealing my conviction and have already raised over $8,000 towards that end. I hope that you will help by donating here in either bitcoin or dollars.
Welcome to Rich Paul, our newest blogger! Here’s his bio from the Bloggers page:
Rich Paul is an early mover for the Free State Project and computer programmer by trade who is currently in jail for selling cannabis. He heroically stood up for his belief that the drug war needs to end, put his entire life on the line, and faced 100 years in prison. He was sentenced to one in jail aka the Keene Spiritual Retreat. Watch the blog for his posts from jail and tune into Free Talk Live to hear his calls from jail. You can write to him here at Mail-to-Jail.
In this episode, we discuss the Palmer, Mass. win, Rich Paul’s sentencing, Keene’s new city budget and government funded man caves. Jay Freeville joins us. I found him a big ole Papa bear chair off the side of the road that was just right.
Thanks to Meghan Pierce for the excellent front-page feature article in the Union Leader on Robin Hood and the Merry Men and Women’s first appearance in court yesterday.
Plus, we got a feature story from Kyle Jarvis at the Keene Sentinel, though he (or perhaps the editors) wrongly states that I spoke on behalf of the other Robin Hooders at the hearing. This is not true. I did most of the speaking because the court was hearing my motion to dismiss. I wrote it, so I spoke about it. The others had nothing to do with that motion. I don’t represent them and they don’t represent me.
Finally, a video report from WMUR. Stay tuned as more media will be posted as it comes in.
On March 16 of this year, I received a parking ticket while parked on Winter Street. After looking at the ticket, I realized that the ticket was written before the meter was supposed to have expired. I had parked at 1:00pm and put enough money in the meter to cover the next 1 hour and 6 minutes. The ticket was written at 2:05:57. A few days later, I went to the Police Department stating that I would like to challenge the ticket. A Pre-Trial Conference (PTC) was set, and I motioned to waive the PTC. A Hearing was then scheduled for June 12 at 9:00am.
I arrived at the District Court at approximately 8:40am and at 8:50 was called by the Clerk to go into the “small room” near the lobby. I can only guess that Judge Burke did not want everyone in the main court room to see the trial.
The only witness against me was Jane McDermott, the Parking Enforcer who issued the ticket. During cross-examination I asked how, since the meters aren’t calibrated, she knew the meters kept accurate time, she stating that she doesn’t know, but if the batteries are bad, they replace them. I attempted to make a statement and was told that I would have to testify in order to introduce any “evidence,” so after the “City” rested it’s case, I was sworn in. I stated that on the date in question, I had parked at 1:00pm and put enough money in the meter to cover the next 1 hour and 6 minutes, which meant the meter should not have expired until at least 2:06 (and some seconds). Since the ticket was written at 2:05:57, I was shorted some amount of time that I was owed.
Judge Burke then said “Since the burden of proof is on the City to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, I am marking a finding of not guilty.”
I, Rich Paul, have finally been sentenced after sitting in jail for seven weeks. My sentence is:
