Kafka in Florida

From the Reason blog:

Tampa's Mark O'Hara was released from prison this week. He was serving a 25-year sentence for possession of 58 Vicodin tablets. Prosecutors acknowledge he wasn't selling the drug. They acknowledge that he had a prescription for it. At his trial, two doctors testified they'd been treating O'Hara since the early 1990s for pain related to gout and an automobile accident.

But prosecutors inexplicably brought drug trafficking charges anyway, because as the article explains, "Under the law, simply possessing the quantity of pills he had constitutes trafficking."

Fighting off a vindictive prosecution is nearly impossible for the innocent. The prosecution took Mr. O’Hara’s business, his cars and his condos and he was in jail for two years before the sentence was overturned.

Unfortunately prosecutors are almost never held accountable for their actions. No matter how abusive their action they hide behind the, “it’s the law and we have no choice” shield, as if they have no prosecutorial discretion. Even a child could tell you this was absurd case yet they face no penalty at all. An informed jury can prevent these abuses right now with out any changes to the law.

Several comments on the Reason blog expressed skepticism that jury nullification would have helped here since the information that there was a prescription was not available during the trial. Even so, a fully-informed juror would have enough reason to nullify on the basis that this was a victimless crime and that possible sentence of 25 years was grossly out of line with the alleged offense. Keeping juries in the dark is the only way to get them to convict.