Quadriplegic First-Time Pot Offender Dies in Jail
27 year-old Jonathan Magbie became a quadriplegic while still a kid after being hit by a drunk driver. He got by with constant help from his relatives and an electric wheelchair, which he controlled with his chin. Drug Policy Alliance reports (after reviewing a Washington Post article on the case.)
Magbie was arrested more than a year ago for possession of marijuana. He was in a car at the time of his arrest. Police found cocaine and a gun in the car. Though the Post does not explicitly mention that Magbie was not driving, nor that the gun was not Magbie's, the man could move nothing but his head -- making it safe to assume he was a passenger in a car in which someone else was transporting a gun. Magbie was finally tried on the marijuana charge 11 days ago. As a first-time offender in DC, according to the Post, he could expect to receive probation. What he received, though, amounted to a death sentence.