This is just the best! From the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Jurors who convicted marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal of cultivation and other drug charges said Monday they would have acquitted him had they been told he was growing medical marijuana for the city of Oakland. "

"I feel like I made the biggest mistake in my life," said juror Marney Craig, a 58-year-old Novato property manager. "We convicted a man who is not a criminal. We unfortunately had no idea of who he was or what he did."

Another juror: "Some of us jurors are upset about the way the trial was conducted in that we feel Mr. Rosenthal didn't have a chance and therefore neither did state's rights or patient's rights. I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to decide with all the evidence."

The other jurors agreed--and they are all going to write Ed an apology.

So much for Ashcroft thinking he got a victory and that the good citizens of California back his anti-medical pot campaign.

The Government announced after the verdict it would seek to have Ed detained pending sentencing, and a hearing was scheduled for that tomorrow. Let's hope the prosecutors (no, make that Aschcroft, since the prosecutors just do what Ashcroft tells them to these days) sees the light and drops that overkill request.

Update: The New York Times in an editorial, Misguided Marijuana War, addresses the inequity of the Rosenthal conviction and says, "The courts should not allow Mr. Rosenthal's conviction to stand. It would be a serious injustice if he were to serve years in prison, as he well may. Meanwhile, the administration should stop tyrannizing doctors and sick people and focus on more important aspects of the war on drugs."