7KH :LOO )RVWHU 6WRU\ )URP D \HDU 3ULVRQ 6HQWHQFH WR *URZLQJ 1RUPDśV 'UHDP By Angela Bacca
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hree days after Christmas in 1995, Will Foster’s home was raided by the Special Investigations Division (SID) of the Tulsa Police Department on a “John Doe” search warrant. Instead of ƥ MCHMF LDSG@LOGDS@LHMD @R @ BNMƥ
dential informant suggested they would, SGDX ENTMC @ ƥ UD AX ƥ UD ENNS KNBJDC @MC sealed cannabis garden in a bomb shelter under the home. Foster, a U.S. Army veteran and computer programmer, lived in a quiet upper-middle-class Tulsa neighborhood. He wasn’t dealing. He was growing his own to treat his psoriatic arthritis, a painful autoimmune disease that causes swelling and RSHƤ MDRR HM SGD INHMSR VGHBG B@M KD@C SN HQ
reparable damage. Rather than take a plea deal and serve 20 years, Foster chose to ƥ FGS GHR B@RD HM BNTQS @ QHRJX @MC DWODM
sive proposition. Despite all Americans having the right to a trial by jury, 90 to 95 percent of criminal convictions end in a plea deal. In Oklahoma over 80 percent of defendants cannot @Ƥ NQC SGDHQ NVM K@VXDQ @MC @QD @RRHFMDC public defenders whose caseloads continue to swell. When a defendant chooses to take the case to jury trial they are likely to face a steeper sentence than what the OKD@ CD@K NƤ DQR
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OunceMag.com SUMMER 2019
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tion means that even if a jury feels there is substantial evidence to convict a defendant of a crime they may choose to acquit if they do not believe the law is just. Will’s choice was extra risky in Oklahoma, which has both the highest rate of incarceration in the nation and the world. It also incarcerates more women than any other American state. According to the Oklahoman, the state not only sends more people to prison per capita than other states, but keeps them there longer. Foster’s wife at the time, who had nothing to do with the garden, would also have to
“Someone had to challenge these fucks,” Foster said, “I never said ‘guilty’ one time and I never will. If you say ‘guilty’ you give up everything.” During the trial, Foster recruited longtime High Times Magazine columnist, activist, author and cannabis cultivation expert Ed Rosenthal as a witness at his trial. When @RJDC HE SGD @Ƨ KH@SHNM L@X G@UD GTQS GHL Foster quickly replied that it really didn’t matter because he was already “doomed” ENQ BGNNRHMF SN ƥ FGS GHR B@RD Based on the rules laid out by the prosecutor to the jury, they had no choice but SN ƥ MC GHL FTHKSX (M )@MT@QX NE GD was sentenced to 93 years in state prison, CDROHSD ADHMF @ ƥ QRS SHLD MNMUHNKDMS NE
fender. He was 38-years-old. “Juries do what prosecutors say. If you think I am the only person that received an outrageous sentence for pot [in Oklahoma], you are grossly mistaken,” Foster says. “There are people in prison right now doing horrendous amounts of time.” continued next page
