Epis case remanded

The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in another reasonable and bold decision has ordered the case of Bryan Epis remanded to the district court pending the US Supreme Court's review of Raich v. Ashcroft. We hope this provides impetus for other wrongfully incarcerated medical marijuana providers to appeal their convictions. Congrats to Epis and his legal team headed by Brenda Grantland and thanks to Richard Lake of Media Awareness Project for forwarding a copy of the order:

ORDER

This cause came on for hearing before the court on June 16, 2004. The Supreme Court of the United States has now granted certiorari in Raich v. Ashcroft, 352 F.3d 1222 (9th Cir. 2003) cert granted (U.S. June 28, 2004) (No. 03-1454), which is a related case dealing with the growing and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. This court now remands this case to the district court for reconsideration of the judgment following the decision by the Supreme Court in Raich. If, after considering any application of Raich to this case, the district court determines that Epis's conviction should remain in tact, the district court should then proceed to re-sentence Epis in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court's decision in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. ___ (2004) WL 1402697 (June 24, 2004). The panel of this court retains jurisdiction pending reconsideration by the district court.

IT IS SO ORDERED.