State Courts

Tyrone Brown violated probation as a 17-year-old by smoking marijuana, and was sentenced to life in prison for it. He's still there, but maybe not for long.

Richard Paey, the wheelchair-bound pain patient serving a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence as a drug dealer under Florida law, will remain in prison after losing an appeal this week. But a sympathetic appeals court suggested he seek clemency from the governor.

Officials of San Diego, Merced and San Bernardino counties who are hostile to California's medical marijuana law lost a court battle.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that qualified medical marijuana patients can transport their medicine -- as much as they need -- without being subjected to arrest and conviction.

The US Supreme Court Monday refused to hear appeals of state court decisions limiting law enforcement's ability to conduct searches in two states.

A Michigan circuit court judge has thrown out the arrests of 94 people charged with "frequenting a drug house" after Flint police raided a night club holding a rave.

Busy this week: judges on cocaine, cops dealing cocaine, cops selling ecstasy, Air Force pilots smuggling ecstasy, police chemists pilfering from the evidence pile -- and of course, jail guards smuggling dope into prisons.

More than 90 people serving life sentences without parole for selling heroin under an old Louisiana law remain in prison despite reforms that should have freed them. The state Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a pair of cases that could accelerate their release.

When Ryan Davidson wanted to start a marijuana legalization initiative in Sun Valley, Idaho, local officials said no. Now, the Idaho Supreme Court says they were wrong.

Mid-level Rockefeller drug law prisoners arrested before January 2005 will not be able to seek retroactive sentence cuts, New York's highest court has ruled.