John Knock - A Case of Charging Disparity

LIFE FOR POT RELEASE NON-VIOLENT MARIJUANA PRISONERS

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John's Profile 
Nonviolent Marijuana Offender Serving a Sentence of
Life Without Parole

I am a 69 year old first time nonviolent marijuana offender serving a sentence of two life terms plus 20 for a marijuana conspiracy that took place in the SF Bay area and Canada.  I was charged with conspiracy and was the last person prosecuted and chose to go to trial.  I was prosecuted and sentenced in the 11th Circuit Northern District of Florida.

At sentencing, Judge Maurice Paul stated that there were no victims.  Even though there were no victims, I most certainly knew that marijuana was not legal and that I was breaking the law.

I am deeply sorry for my involvement and regret my life choices.  These choices have caused untold pain and sorrow for those I love and those who love me.  I have been incarcerated for this offense for twenty years and am no doubt approaching the twilight of my life.  I was held for this offense for 41/2 years pretrial.

For the last 20 years I have attempted to build a prison resume that I can be proud of and to live my life with integrity and respect for others and model nonviolent conflict resolution.  I have never had violence in my life and was originally drawn into the conspiracy in the 60s and 70s counter culture of the San Francisco Bay area.  Throughout my 20 years of incarceration I have never had an infraction. 

I believe I have been fortunate and blessed to continue to have the support of my entire family and extended family.  They have all suffered because of my incarceration but my ex-wife and son have been able to overcome all the hardships and build successful lives in spite of the suffering caused by having an incarcerated husband and father.  I deeply regret what they have gone through.  My ex-wife will welcome me back.  While I’ve been incarcerated she was able to complete her Ph.D. and secure a tenured position at a university in Pennsylvania.  My son has an engineering degree from Columbia University.  I am very grateful and proud that they have been able to have successful lives and still offer me support.

I beg for mercy, compassion and forgiveness and a chance for a second chapter in my life.  Please consider my petition for commutation.


John's Family
Please sign the petition to President Obama asking that he grant clemency to
John Knock

John's extended family - all in his corner
           A Family Story

Please read the Group Petition for Commutation to for five elderly non-violent marijuana inmates serving sentences of Life Without Parole for selling marijuana.  John Knock is one of these inmates included on the Petition.

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Inside the Prison de la Sante - an eyewitness account


John Knock received the longest sentence ever given for a non-violent, marijuana only first time offender - two life terms plus twenty

Charging Disparity and Sentencing Disparity Resulted in
John Knock Receiving the Harshest Sentence In US History for a
First Time Non-Violent MARIJUANA ONLY Offense"dry" CONSPIRACY   ONLY - No Pot was Found or  Produced Reverse Sting

 
VISIT
OUR
BLOG

   
Eric Holder - Memorandum to all Federal Prosecutors                      Charging Disparities
                                                                                                                   Justice Kennedy on Reform
Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition                            
                             Jeffrey A Miron and Katherine Waldock
Sentencing Trends and Policy 
                                                                                             Vera Institute for Justice

Conspiracy to Import                    Life
Conspiracy to distribute               Life
Conspiracy to Money Launder    20 years

Two Life Terms plus Twenty


John did not have a plea agreement and went to trial.  If you exercise your right to trial your sentence is usually multiplied six fold.  Also charges are not dropped, but charges are added.  This is the prosecutors power.

If you know of a non-violent  first time marijuana only offender who has received a sentence of this magnitude please contact
john knock  100 Hale Rd.   Zanesville, Oh. 43701                                               e- mail    johnknock@johnknock.com
Also contact us if you know of any marijuana only non-violent offender with a life sentence

EXAMPLES OF  SENTENCING DISPARITY AND CHARGING DISPARITY
SENTENCES GIVEN TO HEROIN AND COCAINE KINGPINS COMPARED TO JOHN KNOCK

Ricky Donnell Ross  sentenced to life in 1996  
     reduced to 20 - released in 2009 
     Kingpin - sold 2-3 million per day
    
Felix Gallardo   sentenced in 1994 to 40 years
     Heroin and cocaine Kingpin 
     case involved Camerana killing


Torrance Hill   sentenced to 24 years in 2007
     major cocaine Kingpin 9 million per month

Manuel Noriega  sentenced to 40 years in 1992
     released in 2007 -  Kingpin 8 counts trafficking
     and money laundering


Manuel Felipe Salazar  sentenced in 2008 to 30 years
     Worlds most significant cocaine Kingpin
     14 million per week


EXAMPLES OF SENTENCING DISPARITY AND CHARGING DISPARITY
SENTENCES GIVEN TO MARIJUANA ONLY NON-VIOLENT KINGPINS COMPARED TO JOHN KNOCK

  Gregory Antonakos - arrested in 1998
     released in 2004
    
Called Mastermind of multimillion
     Dollar Marijuana Ring

    
David S Brocklebank
- sentenced in
     2004 released 2008
    
Multi Ton Intrnational
     Drug Smuggler


Robert Colflesh
- sentenced to 10 years
     in 1988 released in 1992
     Called Worlds biggest
     Drug kingpin


Samuel Colflesh - sentenced to 10
     years in 1988 released in 1992
     Worlds biggest drug kingpin -
     with brother


Brian P Daniels - sentenced to 25
     years in 1990 released in 2009
     Largest seizure of marijuana
     in the world


Terry P Dee - sentenced in 1990
     released in 1999
     Master mind of drug ring

Sidney Marvin Lewis - became a fugitive
     in 1990- extradited from Isreal in 2003
     pled to 25,000 tons hashish 2006 sentenced 
     to 60 months - released 2007
     Largest hashish seizure in
     the Northwest


Arthur Torsone - indicted in 1998
     released in 2006
     Called one of the Biggest
     Marijuana smugglers on the planet


Robert Tillitz - sentenced in 1990
     to 30 years
     released in 10 years
     Major Marijuana Smuggler
    
    

Ciro Mancuso - sentenced to 9 years
     in 1995

     released in 2000
     Largest drug conspiracy in history

Howard Marks - sentenced to 25 years
     in 1988

     released in 1996
     Called Largest Smuggler of Marijuana
     in the World


Micahel Medjuck - sentenced  to 24 years
     in 1991

     released in 2004
     Called Largest shipment ever seized
     by US agents


Brian O'Dea - sentenced to 10 years in 1991
     released in Canada in 1993
     Called Kingpin

Bruce Perlowin - sentenced in 1983
     released in 1991
     Called largest marijuana importer
     in history


Thomas Sherrett - sentenced to 20 years
     in 1994

     released in 2003
     Called Kingpin

William Shaffer - arrested in 1992
     cannot be found in Bureau of
     Prison's data base - not incarcerated
     World's biggest Drug Kingpins

Kris Shaffer - arrested in 1992
     cannot be found in Bureau of
     Prison's data base - not incarcerated
     Biggest Marijuana importation on
     West Coast

    

Michael Cleave Forwell - sentenced
     to 15 years in 1996
    
released in 1999
    
Called most powerful marijuana
     trafficker in SEA


Frank Falco - sentenced to 10 years
     in 2009 - 15 year fugitive

    
Called Largest hashish smuggling
     ever unraveled on West Coast


Allen Long - arrested in 1992
    
released in 1997
    
Called Kingpin responsible for
     multi tons


William Edwin Uhler - sentenced to
     24 years 4 months in 1990
    
released in 1999
    
Called World's Biggest marijuana
     Trafficker


Walter M Ulrich - sentenced to
     15 years in 1989
    
released after 7
    
Called Kingpin





This site shows the charging disparity for marijuana only non-violent offenders.  Please visit
LIFE FOR POT      A CASE OF CHARGING DISPARITY
NON-VIOLENT MARIJUANA ONLY OFFENDERS SENTENCED TO LIFE

YOU MAY NOTE THE CIRCUITS THAT HAVE PRONOUNCED CHARGING DISPARITY

Click below to be taken to a page to access many interesting documents and Trial Transcript

case documents and trial documents

This is just one family's story of how mandatory minimums have changed the world as we knew it.  Firmly rooted in the mid-west, our family had a legacy of community, patriotism, love of country, and trust in neighbors and friends.  We  believed in the rule of law and believed that law enforcement and our justice system protected us and our freedoms.
This is no longer true

This Web Site is devoted to the story of my brother John Knock.  He is a prisoner in Allenwood USP.  In 1994 he was indicted in the Northern District of Florida.  Conspiracy laws in the United States made it possible for him to be charged with the offenses of many over a period of  years 

Florida was in a place John had not been.  This tragic event has given John's family a new understanding of our criminal justice system.  John is a non-violent first time marijuana offender.  He is now 69 years old and will die behind bars chained to a hospital bed if he does not receive clemency..

 
 
 
John is a 64 year old inmate, who is a first time offender with no history of violence or drug abuse. He is a model prisoner under the harshest of conditions and treatment. John was extradited from France in 1999 to the Northern District of Florida where he was tried in 2000 in the Court of Judge Maurice Paul. He was given a sentence of 2 life terms for conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana, and 20 years for conspiracy to money launder. 

Clifton Brown had been a fugitive for twenty years.  He wanted to have a plea agreement and have his charges dismissed.  Clifton Brown went to the Federal Prosecutors in the Northern District of Florida and said he knew individuals in San Francisco who may be involved with marijuana.  The Florida Prosecutors and the DEA set up an elaborate sting operation to lure these individuals to Florida to get them to agree to participate in a marijuana importation. 

They did not agree to participate and a crime did not take  place.  John had known one of the San Francisco targets in the 70s and thus he was charged as a conspirator. Witnesses testified that John did not import into the United States because of mandatory minimums. There was also testimony that John retired in the late 80s, and people were warned not to let him know of any marijuana importations, as he would not approve.

The case built by the prosecutors at his trial sounded like a fairy tale to John's family. One frightened and compromised witness after another tried to testify in a way that would match their plea agreement and or would give them a share of the forfeiture.

Although most of the testimony at the trial concerned importations into other countries, law enforcement from these countries testified that John was not wanted for any unlawful activity.

After John was extradited, the Federal Prosecutors sought and obtained a superseding indictment with the intention of extending the time line of his case through conspiracy laws. He was then tried with a co-defendant. Through this elaborate process, prosecutors extended the time line to 1996. Prosecutorial overreach was evident on every level.

John is a 64 year old inmate who was artfully and egregiously prosecuted in the Northern District of Florida.


2255 memorandum of law

Attorney William Mallory Kent


reply to government's response 2255

certificate of appealability

WOULD YOU PROSECUTE THIS GUY ?

GENESIS OF CASE AGAINST
JOHN KNOCK AND CLAUDE DUBOC


John Knock's Story

Claude Duboc's Story







In the United States 3 of every 100 citizens is under the control of the US legal system.  They are either incarcerated, on probation or parole.
The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the worlds prisoners.
850,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana in 2009.
30% of the U.S. population has an arrest record.
Over 1 trillion dollars has been spent since the beginning of the War on Drug.

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The following is a quote from the opinion in US v Brown, Debella, Reizen and Ehrling  from the 11th Circuit
"The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely."  "To be free of tyranny in a free country, the causeway's edges must be clearly marked"  
Thomas More - A Man for all Seasons     The exercise of federal government power to criminalize conduct and thereby to coerce and to deprive persons, by government action, of their liberty, reputation and property must be watched carefully in a country that values the liberties of its private citizens.  Never can we  allow federal prosecutors to make up the law as they go along.

The Rule of Law demands that the law is clear.  How can this be true in a country where Federal, State, and Local Judges do not agree about the meaning of the statute?  The Rule of Lenity commands that where there are alternative readings of a criminal statute we are to choose the harsher only when Congress has spoken in clear and definite language.

The Rule of Law

I am Beth Curtis.  John Knock is my brother
       Please visit my blog

 
Rule of Law
JOHN KNOCK

This is the story of a man who must wrestle with the wind that is called the Rule of Law. He was born a free spirit, and remains so.

It is also the story of
Grandma and her descent into the mystic proded along the way by the DEA and Federal Prosecutors in the Northern District of Florida

PLEASE VISIT

Grandma's Mind Was Stolen By The DEA

Kurt Vonnnagut spoke in an interview of a man who was born good and stayed that way till he was dead. I have always thought of John that way. It is not difficult to put an elegant yet human face on him.

On a crisp September day in 1947, John was born the fourth and youngest child of Bijou and Calvin Knock. His father was the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The family lived in the large yellow Victorian house next to the church. It was a time when children played all day with dangerous offensive toys, talked to strangers, had pets that were not fenced, and felt free. There were no warning labels on everyday products and suing was an unknown concept.

There were also no conspiracy laws, mandatory minimum sentences, money laundering, and scant federal law telling us what to grow, eat, think and do. Life had a clarity and cleanness about it.

John grew restless in the late 60s as did his generation and followed the exhortation - Go west. In California, it was a time of turmoil, but still with promise and freedom. There was protest in the air along with a sense of power, hope and change. California was a bubbling caldron of all these promises. The promises were of course false or suspect at the very least. The young hoped that the justice system and Federal law would bring more freedom to the dispossessed. This happened, but it was like the dog that came back to bite.

Those who have the power to keep you safe can also suck freedom from the air you breath. If the government can give you freedom, it also has the power to take it away.

Thirty years later, John Knock, a hopeful, happy, loyal, non-violent man who loves dogs, children and life is sent to prison for life in the 11th circuit Federal Court in Gainesville Florida by Judge Maurice Paul.

He was convicted of a crime that didn't take place, with people he didn't know, in a location he hadn't been. The additional irony is that the crime was conceived and instigated by the DEA and Federal Prosecutors who were aided by paid and compensated informants.

I'm his sister and I've been educated.

John has an admiration for Sir Thomas More. I would also appreciate the existentialist sentiment of the play. The idea of a self directed man could be an ideal. The corruption begins with every duty. I believe that John's admiration has it's genesis from a more primal source. A Man for All Seasons portrays Thomas More as a man of principle risking life and liberty for his belief, a man standing against the King with dignity, but unyielding. John did not suddenly begin this admiration of the Saint through a dramatic or literary experience. I believe he arrived here by way of his time in Ireland 35 years ago when he developed a profound empathy for women in their 7th decade who were still hiding their identity for fear of government reprisal for past rebellion. This John could identify with. In a Man for all Seasons, More is portrayed as a renaissance man. Thomas More is both more practical and more of an ideologue, but, John sees him as a man of principle standing up to a sovereign state that seeks to control ones thought.

I on the other hand see the drug war through other metaphores. Arthur Miller"s Crucible comes to mind. The DEA and Federal Prosecutors peeking through the bushes into the clearing to watch the young girls dance. Could they be Reverand Parris?

MORE TO COME



John's Extended Family - All In His Corner
JOHN'S EXTENDED FAMILY - ALL IN HIS CORNER

Nancy Beth Jim John 1948
NANCY BETH JIM AND JOHN
1949

JOHN'S FAMILY
NANCY BETH JOHN AND JIM
PARENTS 1985

JIM BETH NANCY JOHN
2006

RULE OF LAW

In 1965, I was an idealistic graduate student. It was an exciting time with Michael Harrington's culture of poverty, the beginning of the Welfare Rights Movement, the civil Rights Movement and the dark cloud of Viet Nam as a back drop. The rights of the individual were magnified by these MOVEMENTS AND CHILDREN OF THE 60S looked to the Federal Government to define, bestow and preserve the same. An activist court was cheered and legislation to regulate human behavior was warmly welcomed. Bobby Kennedy's pursuit of the scoundrels of organized crime would remove a cancer from our country. Rico, conspiracy and mandatory minimums were on their way.

Forty years later I still strive to understand the individual's relationship to the state and how there can be a relationship that maintains freedom through the "Rule of Law". Waves of nausea now overcome me when I hear the phrase.

We now have one in every 30 citizens interfacing with the criminal justice complex. Rural communities hope there will be a need for more prisons and vie for them to be built in their community. Prisons are considered economic development. Many federal, State and Local Government jobs are dependent on the growth of our prison population. As more and more men and women are interfacing with the court system, the rule of law is a labyrinth of conflict and contradiction.

This contract between the governed and the state becomes unfathomable. Just as unfathomable is some consensus about what individual rights are. Case law piles on in volumes, and contradictory and minutely parsed decisions leave defendants without a clear understanding of process. Additionally they are required to use the services of an army of attorneys and advocates of various abilities and ethics. The financial resources of their families are sucked into the black hole of our criminal justice system.

If forfeitable assets are part of the bounty of the state, defense attorneys must defend their clients by walking on eggs, fearful that they may also be prosecuted. This further compromises the rights of the defendant. Many defendants must make plea agreements to things they knew little or nothing about because they have no resources. Even those with ample resources plea to avoid the almost certain conviction, and harsher sentence. Grand Juries are now used to investigate, rather than to decide if there is probable cause to indict.

Split decisions with carefully parsed nuances send hopes and money into this abyss. It must be noted that each individual caught in this web has children, parents, brothers and sisters who love them and are also disillusioned, confounded, and perhaps bitter about resources expended on a system that is so confounding yet has the power to take away the future of so many families.

How did we become so fearful of freedom that we have insisted on laws that criminalize so much human behavior and even thought? We now routinely convict people of crimes that never took place, in places the defendant has never been, with people they do not know and incidentally, the criminal act was instigated by law enforcement. The rest of the world disdains us and developing countries reject our rule of law. We investigate people who have not broken the law to prevent lawlessness. Our law enforcement is becoming lawless. Our rule of law is too voluminous and therefore arbitrary. Even the language, War on Crime, belies the rule of law. Our justice system uses the metaphors of war, and the object is the citizens whose part of the covenant is to give consent.

Brilliant trial and appellate attorneys arguing cases and judges deciding them are thrilling to read and even more so to watch. Their memory and critical thought is as sharp and shining as a mirror shattering. To me it is also as frightening as it would be to walk bare foot across the broken glass.

As I watch Justice Bryer and Justice Scalia have conversations about decisions and interpretations, I long for something more absolute. Something more absolute would be language that is clear, simple and true. How can a man's life and liberty depend on nuances culled from thousands and thousands of pages of case law with the reasonable possibility of a single sentence or concept on one of those pages becoming determinative. Too much law turns "Rule of Law" into rule of men.

What would Aristotle think of our rule of law? What would our founding fathers see? We have constant imposition and enforcement of arbitrary and restrictive values imposed on us by an over active legislative branch. These are interpreted and judged by a judiciary system that seems to be will aware of the fact that the governed can no longer know the rules of the covenant they are part of. I just fear for our freedoms.

I know there is logic and order in the process, but the sheer magnitude and complexity of the possibilities invites subjectivity.


Beth Cutis


INTERESTING POINTS

Interesting Sites
united states sentencing commission
drug war rant
criminal justice policy foundation
interfaith drug policy initiative
common sense for drug policy
federal cure
drug policy alliance
human rights and the drug war\
law enforcement against prohibition
no new prisons
unitarian universalists for drug policy reform
marijuana policy projec
national drug strategies network
drug sense
stop the drug war
families against mandatory minimums
real cost of prisons
the sentencing project
plants and drugs

norml

 




childhood pictures

more pictures


media awareness project
november coalition
christians for cannabis
forfeiture endangers american rights

justice policy institute




   
web site by Beth Curtis
contact me
johnknock@johnknock.com

web site by Beth curtis
John Knock
johnknock@johnknock.com