Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs From: [s d hc] at [pro-sancho.cts.com] (San Diego Hemp Council) Subject: ===APPEALS COURT FREES SAMUEL SKIPPER=== Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 14:33:42 GMT This article is from the 3/4/94 San Diego Union-Tribune. 'Pot' User With HIV Granted Freedom By Anne Krueger Staff Writer A jubilant Samuel Skipper, who says he needs to consume marijuana to relieve symptoms of the AIDS virus, was released from prison yesterday after a state appellate court ruled that he should be free while he appeals his 16-month sentence. Skipper, 39, was released from the Richard J. Donovan prison at Otay Mesa just hours after the 4th District Court of Appeal issued its ruling. His lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Juliana Humphrey, waited at the prison gates to take Skipper away. "I was completely shocked when they told me," Skipper said. He said he lost the La Mesa home he had been renting when his legal troubles began and he planned to spend the night with friends. Humphrey said the appellate court ruling indicated that the justices believe Skipper's appeal of the judgment against him is worthy of consideration. "I think it's a phenomenal sign being sent. At least for me, it's a vindication that the whole thing stunk," Humphrey said. Municipal Court Judge Charles Rogers, who reluctantly sentenced Skipper to prison despite Rogers' stated opposition to laws against marijuana, moved to Portland, Ore. last week. Deputy District Attorney David Williams, who prosecuted Skipper's case, said he could not comment on the appeal court ruling. He spent less than two months in prison, but his time there was not easy. He said he was stabbed in the back by another inmate Feb. 18, and he has been held in solitary confinement since then for his own protection. His case has become a cause celebre for some gays and supporters of the legalization of marijuana. Last week, the San Diego City Council passed a resolution urging that people with AIDS be allowed the compassionate use of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. He has been on an emotional roller coaster since he went to trial last October on charges of cultivating marijuana at his La Mesa house. Skipper, whose companion died of AIDS in 1991, is infected with the virus that causes AIDS but does not yet have the disease. He claims he has been able to fight off the nausea and weight loss associated with the virus by daily consumption of marijuana, which he grew at his home and consumed at every meal, including on his cereal and in peanut-butter balls. A jury agreed that Skipper had a medical necessity to consume marijuana and acquitted him of two felony counts. Authorities had been able to search Skipper's house without a warrant because he had pleaded guilty in 1991 to growing marijuana and as part of his probation had agreed to allow such searches. Bolstered by his acquittal last year, Skipper returned to Judge Rogers and asked that the remaining nine months of his probation on the 1991 charge be lifted. Rogers refused, but offered to remove the requirement that authorities could search Skipper's house without a warrant. Skipper initially refused the offer, although he changed his mind at the hearing in which he was sentenced to prison for violating his probation. Rogers said Skipper had shown he could not abide by the terms of his probation because Skipper said he would continue to ingest marijuana. He sentenced Skipper to 16 months in prison despite Humphrey's protests that Skipper would complete his prison term before his appeal would be decided. In ordering Skipper released from prison, the appeal court said he would remain under his original probation, meaning he could be searched at any time without a warrant. Skipper did not comment yesterday when asked by a reporter if he planned to continue consuming marijuana. Humphrey estimated that Skipper's appeal will be resolved in four to six months. ________________________________________________________ San Diego Hemp Council [s d hc] at [pro-sancho.cts.com] Hemp = Medicine/Fuel/Food/Fiber/Paper/Housing/Jobs/Fun