Court Opinion

ID: 9744124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:54:15.349417+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:46.871614
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN, dissenting: The defendant was convicted for possessing more than 500 grams of marijuana, a Class 3 felony (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 56M, par. 704(e)). Possessing more than 30 grams but not more than 500 grams is a Class 4 felony (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 56/2, par. 704(d)). Permissible sentence for a Class 3 felony is not less than 2 nor more than 5 years (Ill. Rev. Stat., 1978 Supp., ch. 38, par. 1005 — 8—1(a)(6)); permissible sentence for a Class 4 felony is not less than 1 nor more than 3 years (Ill. Rev. Stat., 1978 Supp., ch. 38, par. 1005 — 8—1(a)(7)). The defendant’s conviction for possession of marijuana should be reduced to a Class 4 felony because the State has failed to meet its burden of proof that the defendant possessed more than 500 grams of a substance containing cannabis. Between the time the plants were weighed by the sheriff shortly after they were plucked from the ground until they were weighed by a drug analyst for the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, they decreased or lost well over 500 grams in weight. This record is devoid of any evidence that explains how much of the weight loss was due to the fact that the roots had been removed and the plants dried. We should take judicial notice of the fact that plants freshly plucked from the earth will contain soil on their roots. Common sense dictates that the dramatic weight loss of the plants can best be explained by the fact that when the plants were originally weighed by the sheriff’s office they contained not only moisture and roots, but also soil on the roots. After all, the marijuana plants were weighed the same day they were picked and it is difficult to believe that in the short time between picking and weighing the sheriff’s deputies would have removed the soil from the roots of the 200 marijuana plants. The majority relies on People v. Calhoun (1977), 46 Ill. App. 3d 691, 361 N.E.2d 55, for its conclusion that the weight of the marijuana plants at the time they are seized determines how much marijuana the defendant possessed. Reliance on Calhoun is not persuasive. The Calhoun court decided that “bits of paper and soil which were mixed together with the cannabis” (46 Ill. App. 3d 691, 696-97, 361 N.E.2d 55, 59) were properly used for purposes of determining the weight of the substance containing marijuana. The Calhoun decision was supported by two arguments. First, it read People v. Mayberry (1976), 63 Ill. 2d 1, 345 N.E.2d 97, as supporting its conclusion that bits of paper and soil can be included in a “substance containing cannabis.” The Calhoun court misread Mayberry. Indeed, the majority states in its opinion that it agrees with the defendant that garden soil may not be included for purposes of determining the weight of the substance containing cannabis. Second, the Calhoun court stated that assuming, arguendo, its interpretation of Mayberry was wrong, that it could not assume that the absence of bits of soil and paper would reduce the contraband’s weight below the required statutory amount for the offense of which the defendant had been convicted. In Calhoun, the weight of the substance containing cannabis was 340.1 grams. In order for the defendant’s Class 4 felony to be reduced to a misdemeanor, the weight of the bits of paper and soil would have had to weigh more than 300 grams. In contradistinction, if, in this case, the soil on the roots of the 200 marijuana plants weighed as little as 110 grams (less than four ounces), the defendant’s Class 3 felony conviction for possessing more than 500 grams of cannabis cannot stand. Because the State did not show that the roots of the marijuana plants were free of soil when they were weighed, it has not met its burden of proving that the defendant possessed more than 500 grams of a substance containing cannabis and therefore the defendant’s Class 3 felony conviction should have been reduced to a Class 4 felony. The defendant’s Class 3 felony conviction for possessing more than 500 grams of marijuana is the harshest penalty one can receive in Illinois for possession of marijuana. Dried, rootless and without soil, it is undisputed that the marijuana seized from the defendant weighed 87.1 grams, which is to say, the defendant possessed about three ounces of marijuana. Obviously, this relatively innocuous quantity of marijuana does not make the defendant a “large-scale purveyor” of marijuana. Clearly, to convict the defendant of a Class 3 felony — the harshest penalty for possession of marijuana in Illinois — contravenes the legislature’s stated purpose: “[T]o establish a reasonable penalty system which is responsive to the current state of knowledge concerning cannabis and which directs the greatest efforts of law enforcement agencies toward the commercial traffickers and large-scale purveyors of cannabis. To this end, this Act provides wide latitude in the sentencing discretion of the courts and establishes penalties in a sharply rising progression based on the amount of substances containing cannabis involved in each case.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 56%, par. 701. The majority opinion offends the stated purpose. I would reduce the offense to a Class 4 felony and affirm the conviction.