Author Topic: A legislative snafu got this pot case dismissed. Many others could follow  (Read 534 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Houston Chronicle by  Eric Dexheimer Feb. 27, 2020

A legislative snafu got this pot case dismissed. Many others could follow

What if lawmakers writing one of the most consequential laws to come out of last year’s legislative session, legalizing hemp in Texas, forgot to include a small, but crucial detail that could get your marijuana possession charges dropped?

That’s what happened last week, after a Brazos County court judge concluded the new law omitted a date typically included in state crime legislation. As a result, misdemeanor charges against a Texas A&M University student arrested on the day of his 2018 college graduation were summarily tossed.

The decision is the latest stumbling block that Texas’s nine-month-old hemp law has presented for police and prosecutors committed to pursuing low-level marijuana possession cases. Although the decision does not bind other judges, attorneys said the successful tactic had the potential to change the course of hundreds of pending cases across the state.

Anderson added he didn’t think there were many old cases to which the new law could be applied retroactively. Greening said he’s not so sure. He said his office alone had three dozen possession cases filed before the new hemp law went into effect last June.

“I have no idea how many old cases are pending,” Edmonds said. “Hundreds? Thousands?”

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/A-legislative-snafu-got-this-pot-case-dismissed-15089661.php

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: A legislative snafu got this pot case dismissed. Many others could follow
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2020, 04:43:49 am »
Well, summary dismissals might clear up the docket a mite... :shrug:
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis