Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
From: [s d hc] at [pro-sancho.cts.com] (San Diego Hemp Council)
Subject: JUDGE DENIES BAIL FOR SAM SKIPPER
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 94 10:32:42 PST

The following article appears in today's San Diego Union-Tribune:


Judge denies Skipper bail while he appeals pot-growing sentence

By Anne Krueger
Staff Writer

A Municipal Court judge refused yesterday to free a La Mesa man from prison
while he appeals his sentence for growing marijuana, which he said he needs
to relieve symptoms of the AIDS virus.

A week ago, Municipal Court Judge Charles Rogers ordered Samuel Skipper, 39,
to serve a 16-month prison term for the offense after Skipper rejected an
offer to remain on probation another eight months.

The judge sent Skipper to prison -- despite Rogers' own objections to
marijuana laws -- because Skipper had indicated he could not promise that
he would stop using marijuana while on probation.

Skipper has the virus that causes AIDS, but he has not developed the disease.
He said he believes that using marijuana on a daily basis has helped ward off
symptoms of the virus and keep him strong.

Skipper was acquitted in October of growing marijuana when jurors agreed with
his defense that he had a medical need for the drug.

What he wants to appeal is his sentence for a 1991 conviction. He pleaded
guilty to cultivating marijuana at a time when his lover was dying of AIDS
and was placed on three years' probation. Rogers took him off probation and
sent him to prison.

Skipper's lawyer, Juliana Humphrey, asked Rogers yesterday to free Skipper on
bail while he appeals the prison sentence. Because he has the AIDS virus, she
said, Skipper faces an extreme danger to his health while in prison.

"Prison is a very deadly place for Mr. Skipper," she said. "He just wants to
stay home and grow his own marijuana."

Deputy District Attorney David Williams argued that Skipper should not be
freed. "What he's saying is 'Don't put me in prison because I can't get to
the illegal substance that you know I'll use when I get out,'" Williams said.

Rogers refused to free Skipper, although he said he personally believes that
laws against marijuana are "foolish, unadvised laws."

Yesterday's hearing was preceded by a protest outside the courthouse by about
a dozen members of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(NORML) and Act Up, a gay rights organization.

"We believe that people who are dealing with AIDS and HIV ought to deal with
any treatment they choose," said Mark Conlan of Act Up. "We feel it's a
freedom of choice issue."

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 San Diego Hemp Council -- [s d hc] at [pro-sancho.cts.com]
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