“Everyone’s Favorite Felon”: An Interview with Bernie Ellis
By Jeff Rosenzweig
February 5th, 2011
http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2011/02/05/everyones-favorite-felon-an-interview-with-bernie-ellis-2/“Convicted felon.” What comes to mind when you read those words? Perhaps you immediately visualize a mobster, a Capone, a Gotti. Or maybe a white-collar crook, a Madoff, a Skilling, an Ebbers. Or a murderer, a rapist, a bank robber, a gangbanger.
Bernie Ellis is a convicted felon. His crime was growing medical marijuana for his own use and for the use of four terminally-ill neighbors, a service for which he took no payment.
While he avoided prison time, he received four years of probation (later reduced by half) and spent 18 months confined in a Bureau of Prisons halfway house in Nashville.
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A piece he contributed last week to the Democrats for Progress Blog
http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2011/02/05/2011/01/31/i-am-applying-for-a-presidential-pardon-for-my-medical-cannabis-conviction-will-you-help/ fills in more of his astonishing story, and his current efforts to secure a Presidential pardon.
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this interview is excellent, and deeply moving.
peace
*edit for punctuation