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Persecuted pills: fake felonies in Florida.


IN 2004 police in Tampa, Florida “Tampa” redirects here. For other uses, see Tampa (disambiguation).
Tampa is a United States city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County.GR6.
, found 58 Vicodin pills and a misdemeanor amount of marijuana in an illegally parked bread truck. Prosecutors charged the driver, 45-year-old Mark O'Hara, with felony drug distribution not for the pot but for the Vicodin. Under Florida law The jurisprudence of this state offers major differences from doctrines prevailing in the United States at either the federal level or that of the various states.

Homestead exemption from forced sale, the dangerous instrumentality doctrine, the right to privacy, and the Williams
, mere possession of a given weight of a controlled substance controlled substance n. a drug which has been declared by federal or state law to be illegal for sale or use, but may be dispensed under a physician's prescription.  can bring distribution charges, even if, as was the case with O'Hara, there's no evidence the defendant sold or gave away any pills.

In O'Hara's case, the charge was even odder: He had a prescription for the pills.

At his trial, two doctors testified that they had been treating O'Hara since the early 1990s for pain related to gout gout, condition that manifests itself as recurrent attacks of acute arthritis, which may become chronic and deforming. It results from deposits of uric acid crystals in connective tissue or joints.  and an automobile accident Ask a Lawyer

Question
Country: United States of America
State: Utah

Say you're at a red light in a left hand turning lane and the light turns green so you let up slightly on the break antedating moving forward and the vehicle
. But prosecutors insisted that Florida law does not allow for a "prescription defense" to drug charges, a strange claim that, if true, would make every resident of Florida in possession of prescription painkillers a felonious Done with an intent to commit a serious crime or a felony; done with an evil heart or purpose; malicious; wicked; villainous.

An aggravated assault, such as an assault with an intent to murder, is a felonious assault.
 drug dealer. Nevertheless, the trial judge agreed with prosecutors and refused to allow O'Hara to admit his prescription into evidence. The jury convicted O'Hara, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In July a state appeals court threw out the conviction, calling it "ridiculous" and describing the prosecutors' claim that there is "no prescription defense" in Florida "absurd" O'Hara, who had already served two years in prison, was released a week later.

Unfortunately, O'Hara's legal troubles aren't over. Despite the rebuke from the state appeals court, prosecutors announced in August that they plan to try O'Hara again on the same charges.
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Title Annotation:Citings
Author:Balko, Radley
Publication:Reason
Date:Nov 1, 2007
Words:255
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