I don’t believe in divine intervention but providence definitely was in play. To put me in the spot, the enviable spot, of a jury seat with a sympathetic defendant accused of growing pot for personal use. Not only was I lucky enough to be placed on that jury, I was lucky to not have had previous knowledge of the defendant or the case as it all came down rather close to home. About a mile away from my home to be more specific.
On July 9, 2009 a military helicopter buzzed and circled the defendant’s home and likely mine as well. Pictures, warrant, search and seizure ensued. These were the facts laid out before us. There wasn’t any conflicting testimony, none. It’s pot; he grew it; he knew it. But not case closed. (more…)
In a developing story that has hit Reason.com, an NH jury has acquitted a man facing a felony for growing cannabis! It’s our first real-life case of jury nullification here in NH and the jury nullification law hasn’t even gone into effect yet. Kudos to the judge for reading a fair and easy-to-understand jury instruction about nullifying as an option! Also, it probably helped that a free stater was on the jury!
If you are an self-described anarchist or agorist and you are not registered to vote, you need to remedy that now. Being on the voter’s rolls means you could be chosen as a juror, which means that even if you never actually cast a vote in an election, you could cast a vote on a jury that could stop someone’s life from being ruined. Here is the proof. Is there still any doubt the Free State Project is working? If you haven’t made the move, what are you waiting for?
Here’s the story from Reason, which includes the judge’s instruction to the jury:
A few months ago, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signed a bill declaring that “in all criminal proceedings the court shall permit the defense to inform the jury of its right to judge the facts and the application of the law in relation to the facts in controversy.” Although the new law does not take effect until next January, a case decided yesterday in Belknap County illustrates the importance of the nullification power it recognizes. A jury unanimously acquitted Doug Darrell, a 59-year-old Rastafarian charged with marijuana cultivation, after his lawyer, Mark Sisti, argued that a conviction would be unjust in light of the fact that Darrell was growing cannabis for his own religious and medicinal use. More remarkably, Judge James O’Neill instructed the jury that “even if you find that the State has proven each and every element of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt, you may still find the defendant not guilty if you have a conscientious feeling that a not guilty verdict would be a fair result in this case.” (more…)
It was Friday night, and Keene Copblock was on the streets. While observing another scene I noticed what looked like an undercover unit drive down the street and turn onto Marlborough. I gave chase on my bicycle down to the Keene police station, where the officers were taking beer from the trunk of one undercover Impala and loading it into the backseat of another. I pulled out my camera and began recording. That’s where the video picks up. Thanks to Lightspeedliberty for editing the video and the other CopBlockers for their dedication and assistance in busting these aggressors:
CONTEST TIME! Anyone who contributes $5 to our chip-in below will get a ticket entered in our raffle to win a Derrick J-autographed 24×36″ movie poster! ($10 contributions will get 3 raffle tickets, and any multiple of $10 will get 3 tickets per $10) Anyone who has already chipped-in prior to this announcement will also be included in the raffle. The movie poster is the one you see in this post and there are only five of them being produced. Three will go to the movie’s production team and the other two will be those raffled. Winners will be drawn on September 15th – one after the Q&A session at the premiere and the online winner sometime later in the day.
Please “sponsor a seat” at the premiere event and get an entry (or more than one to increase your odds of winning) now via this chip-in:
A recent Mother Jones’ article, Chalk a Sidewalk, Go to Jail by Josh Harkinson features a review of major incidents across the country of chalking arrests. The comprehensive article features references to stories previously covered on Free Concord, such as the chalking cases out of Orlando, Richmond, and LA. There’s even a reference early in the article to the Chalking 8. Midway through, there’s an interactive United States map with a brief description of events in each case. An incident not included in the map, but not forgotten nonetheless, are the original two War on Chalk arrests at the federal building in Concord, November 13, 2010.
If you didn’t already know, I’m running for the Republican Nomination for High Sheriff in beautiful Coös County. I haven’t posted about it here because I don’t think a person seeking a high political office should intertwine it with libertarian related activism. Seeing as our campaign website just mysteriously crashed immediately after I posted this link to it, I figured re-posting it here on one of New Hampshire’s most highly viewed blogs would now be more than appropriate.
After you follow that link and watch the news report, read NH RSA 104:6 section II.
High Sheriff’s in New Hampshire can lawfully enforce the federal court order that stops the Obama Administration from behaving like a group of blac-bloc anarchists regarding constitutional law and federal court authority. That’s right: Sheriffs in New Hampshire can even stop the United States Military from indefinitely detaining Americans without due-process by lawfully enforcing an Article III court injunction at the state level.
My friends in Keene should find out if all of their High Sheriff candidates will defend the rule-of-law against the Obama Administration by enforcing this particular court order.
Everyone in our nation should stand behind the ability of the federal courts to hold the Obama Administration in contempt of the Constitution.
CONTEST TIME! Anyone who contributes $5 to our chip-in below will get a ticket entered in our raffle to win a Derrick J-autographed 24×36″ movie poster! ($10 contributions will get 3 raffle tickets, and any multiple of $10 will get 3 tickets per $10) Anyone who has already chipped-in prior to this announcement will also be included in the raffle. The movie poster is the one you see in this post and there are only five of them being produced. Three will go to the movie’s production team and the other two will be those raffled. Winners will be drawn on September 15th – one after the Q&A session at 
