Luke Scarmazzo is currently serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison for following medical cannabis laws in California. There are many others currently serving, or have served, under similar circumstances. Scarmazzo asked for clemency under former presidents Obama and Trump, but didn’t receive it. Now, his attorneys are looking to a recent opinion published by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. 

Scarmazzo’s History

On September 27, 2006, the DEA raided California Healthcare Collective (CHC). This medical marijuana dispensary in Modesto had operated and paid taxes for over a year. Previously focused on methamphetamine labs in California, Fresno-based Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) shifted to cannabis raids. Medical cannabis legalized in California in 1999. Methamphetamine labs had made their way down to Mexico, so the Central Valley HIDTA needed to focus their efforts elsewhere. 

Co-owners of CHC, Ricardo Montes and Luke Scarmazzo, received a guilty verdict for operating a “continuing criminal enterprise” in May 2008. This sentence came with a minimum of 20 years. Montes received 20 years while Scarmazzo received 21 years and 10 months. 

“We followed California law to the letter,” Scarmazzo stated. “We paid our taxes (and) we went to work every day providing a benefit and service to the community. Yet in the end, we were made out to look like common criminals.”

Montes received clemency by President Obama became a free man in May 2017. Inexplicably, Scarmazzo’s petition for clemency saw denial. In January 2021, Luke was again denied release by President Trump.

Scarmazzo took to Facebook at the beginning of the year to express his sorrow at the situation. “I’m locked into my cell 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Out of 168 hour week, I’m allowed out of my cell for 3 hours to take a shower and use the phone; the other 165 I’m in a concrete box. I haven’t felt the warm sun or inhaled a breath of fresh air in over 3 months. I’m fed enough to be kept alive and confined in frigid temperatures. And these are just a few of the blatant constitutional and human rights violations that I endure daily without just cause.”

Justice Thomas

Justice Thomas, one of the more conservative Justices in The U.S. Supreme Court, published an opinion on June 28, 2021. In this opinion, Justice Thomas discussed different court cases where the Justices ruled both for and against cannabis.

“Given all these developments, one can certainly understand why an ordinary person might think that the Federal Government has retreated from its once-absolute ban on marijuana,” the Justice wrote. “One can also perhaps understand why business owners in Colorado…may think that their intrastate marijuana operations will be treated like any other enterprise that is legal under state law.”

Court Case

Per Scarmazzo’s attorneys, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California has the authority to grant clemency. However, clemency can only become granted if there is “extraordinary and compelling reason” to do so. Plus, the attorneys believe the court should take Justice Thomas’s opinion into consideration. 

Scarmazzo’s attorneys state that the justice’s comment “is an acknowledgement by the highest court in the land of the monumental change that has occurred throughout the nation in the attitudes and laws governing marijuana, and therefore provides further, compelling, support to the extraordinary and compelling reason the defendant should be eligible for Compassionate Release based on a change in law. 

“While Justice Thomas’s opinion does not embody the resolution or determination in a specific case, his opinion rests upon a solid foundation and is no less applicable to the Defendant’s case,” it continues. “Thomas felt compelled under the circumstances to expound upon the history and current state of the federal prohibition on cultivation and use of marijuana, the many changes to the laws at the state level, and the contradictory federal marijuana policy that are virtually unsustainable at this point.

“This court should join the majority of District Courts who have granted Compassionate Release when the law has changed, and reform has occurred. Since the long sentence is not consistent with the current state of law, or the sentences imposed upon his co-defendants, and since he may provide life saving support to his father, Mr. Scarmazzo should be granted compassionate release.”

Future

Scarmazzo’s team waits for a response from the US District Court for the Eastern District of California. The team also asked President Biden for clemency. The team hasn’t received a response yet. However, they remain hopeful that either the District Court or the President will grant Scarmazzo clemency.

“The judge in Luke’s case has an opportunity to correct a massive injustice,” supporters said. 

Make sure to check back for more cannabis and hemp related news.