cannabisnews.com: Another Unnecessary Death in D.C.










  Another Unnecessary Death in D.C.

Posted by CN Staff on October 08, 2004 at 21:05:21 PT
By Colbert I. King
Source: Washington Post  

Too bad that 27-year-old Jonathan Magbie, at this late stage, didn't know the right people. If he did, he might still be alive today. But Magbie had no ties to this town's rich, famous or influential. As his life drew to a close, everyone who wanted to could exercise veto power over him. It had been that way ever since he was hit by a car at age 4 and left paralyzed from the chin down.Magbie's story was told a week ago in The Post by reporter Henri Cauvin. It was a sad tale about a quadriplegic, unable to breathe on his own since childhood (and mobile only with the help of a chin-operated, motorized wheelchair), who was arrested, convicted and sent to the city's jail for 10 days for marijuana possession.
His five days in custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections -- interrupted by a one-night stay at Greater Southeast Community Hospital -- ended in death. Questions concerning the quality of care provided by the hospital and the Corrections Department to Magbie are still unanswered. Unless his mother, Mary Scott, and his lawyer kick up a fuss, the late Magbie will be another closed chapter in the city's long and sickening history of dumping on the least among us.The last five days of Magbie's life, as pieced together this week through e-mail exchanges and interviews conducted with court and corrections officials, paint a picture of a kind of official treatment that would never be accorded a senator's son or someone with friends in city hall.Let's begin with the office of Judge Judith Retchin. On Friday, Sept. 17, three days before Magbie appeared in court for sentencing, Retchin directed her law clerk to check with the person in the chief judge's office who serves as a liaison with the D.C. Corrections Department to determine whether the department would be able to accommodate a "paralyzed, wheelchair-bound defendant." The clerk was told that the jail could handle such an inmate.But did the clerk discuss Magbie's reliance on a ventilator? The court's e-mail response: "No. The law clerk did not inquire about a ventilator. Mr. Magbie had never used a ventilator in the courtroom during any of his court appearances."A serious omission indeed. Corrections Department Director Odie Washington told me that if his department had known Magbie needed a ventilator, it would have advised the court that on-site ventilator care was not available in corrections facilities. Contrary to Retchin's announcement at the time of Magbie's sentencing, the Corrections Department could not attend to his needs. Let's consider other matters that have turned up since The Post's story.The article stated that what happened between Magbie's arrival at the jail on Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. and his being taken to the hospital at 9 p.m. was not explained.An Oct. 7 e-mail response from the Corrections Department to my inquiry indicated that Magbie went through medical and mental health processing through the afternoon of Sept. 20 and was awaiting transfer from the jail to the jail's annex, the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), when he started having difficulty breathing at 9 p.m. A registered nurse on duty asked if he used oxygen at home and Magbie stated that he did not use oxygen at home but he needs continuous breathing ventilator treatment at night. "This is the first time that [the Corrections Department] learns of Mr. Magbie's need for a ventilator," the e-mail stated. The nurse told CTF doctors, and after a second medical evaluation and finding that Magbie needed acute medical care, they decided at 9:15 p.m. to transport him as an emergency patient to Greater Southeast Community Hospital. The Post story reported that a court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Greater Southeast discharged Magbie back to the Corrections Department the following day, and when a senior CTF doctor who believed Magbie belonged in a hospital asked Greater Southeast to take him back, the hospital refused. "That is absolutely not true," Joan Phillips, chief executive officer of Greater Southeast, told me on Thursday. "They did not ask us to take the patient back."Bill Meeks, public information officer for the Corrections Department, concurred. No Corrections Department medical personnel asked the hospital to re-admit Magbie, he said.So where did that story about Greater Southeast's refusal come from? Court spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz said she and those she spoke with didn't know.Another query: Why did the Corrections Department retain custody of a ventilator-dependent inmate for three nights when it knew that neither the jail nor the CTF provided on-site ventilator care?"That was not our decision," said corrections chief Washington when I asked him for an explanation. "We provided the care directed to us by Greater Southeast Community Hospital," he said, and cited his department's e-mail to me: "Magbie was returned to the CTF from Greater Southeast with a patient discharge form with instructions for nasal oxygen at night as needed. No ventilator was ordered."But does Washington's finger-pointing hold up?According to a Superior Court e-mail reply, on Sept. 21 -- the day after Magbie's sentencing and overnight stay in the hospital -- a CTF doctor contacted Judge Retchin's law clerk, informed her that Magbie needed a ventilator when he slept and inquired about procedures to transfer him to Greater Southeast. The clerk consulted with the chief judge's liaison to corrections and was told that the doctor should speak with the Corrections Department's medical administrator, because the court cannot direct medical placements.Washington acknowledged that a CTF physician, "acting on his own," discussed the ventilator situation with Magbie's attorney and that the two reached an agreement to have Magbie's mother bring her son's ventilator to the CTF on the morning of Sept. 24. Unfortunately, by the time she arrived, at approximately 10 a.m., her son, having difficulty breathing, had already been taken to Greater Southeast, where he later died.Court, corrections and hospital bureaucrats have now scurried to their bunkers. Jonathan Magbie wasn't always so little thought of.Twenty-two years ago this month, a chipper 5-year old Jonathan "John-John" Magbie was invited to take part in a White House ceremony commemorating National Respiratory Therapy Week. He had suffered the paralyzing injury a year earlier and was breathing with the help of a mechanical device inserted in his neck and speaking through a battery-powered device that he operated with a flick of his tongue.On the way to the White House, "John-John" told his doctor, Dean Sterling, director of respiratory care services at Children's Hospital, and nurse Nancy Rivers that he wanted to ask President Reagan something. After the ceremony, and as Reagan was saying hello to "John-John," the doctor said:" 'John-John,' you had something you wanted to ask the president, didn't you?""Yes," said the boy. "What are you going to be for Halloween?"Startled, the president replied: "I think I'll just keep being me. That's been tough enough recently" [Bob Levey's Washington, Oct. 29, 1982].This Halloween, both are gone.(For the record: I have never met Judge Retchin. I did, however -- along with other family and friends -- write a letter of recommendation last year to the judge in behalf of a jailed relative who was being sentenced on a felony conviction. At sentencing, Retchin credited him with time served in jail, ordered him into drug treatment and called for a subsequent assignment to a halfway house. He is now on probation and employed. As noted in an earlier column, the King family tree includes members who have attended Penn State and the state pen.) Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: Colbert I. KingPublished: Saturday, October 9, 2004; Page A31 Copyright: 2004 Washington Post Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com Related Article:Disabled Man Dies In D.C. Jailhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19604.shtmlAn Inmate's Deathhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19583.shtmlDC Jail Stay Ends in Death For Quadriplegic Manhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19578.shtml 

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Comment #19 posted by Hope on October 11, 2004 at 21:36:52 PT
Observer!
I know it's just an illusion....but in the picture where Reagan is standing smiling with Johnathan Magbie as a child...he appears to be holding a dagger to his throat!At least it seems like it to me...although I know it's an illusion. Weird.http://www.cannabisculture.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=967465
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on October 11, 2004 at 21:31:42 PT
Observer
"And hey, didn't D.C. just go through a heart-wrenching exercise in "democracy" (I pause to puke) where the people voted to simply not jail medical patients who used pot (like, ahem, the deceased in the case, exactly like the deceased in this very case)? How did the Post miss that connection? You'd think they would at least mention that shameful referendum where the people of D.C. voted FOR medical pot, they voted NOT to jail people like Jonathan Magbie for using pot."That business made me realize for the first time for sure that we weren't what we were supposed to be as a nation. I would never have believed such a thing could happen...and it did...but it's still horrible to believe.Yes...Horrible.The last semblance our government had to a Democratic Republic ended officially and for sure that day. It was all a lie. We never had a voice. Our rights were "suspended" by our representatives. Against the sacrosanct will of the people.That was one of the most egregious moments in the history of the government of the United States.
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Comment #17 posted by eco-man on October 11, 2004 at 18:34:09 PT
Many photos.
For much info and many photos:
http://www.cannabisculture.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=967465
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Comment #16 posted by observer on October 11, 2004 at 14:18:45 PT
Washington Post - diversion
Notice how the Post wants to bore you in the bureaucratic bungling and details that they would have you believe is at fault. Simply tighten up a few regulations (is the subtext of the Post's spin), enforce a few more rules (i.e. just tinker with the wonderful government system) and all will be well.  Notice how the Post doesn't sink their teeth into the meat of the matter: the prohibition of cannabis. And hey, didn't D.C. just go through a heart-wrenching exercise in "democracy" (I pause to puke) where the people voted to simply not jail medical patients who used pot (like, ahem, the deceased in the case, exactly like the deceased in this very case)? How did the Post miss that connection? You'd think they would at least mention that shameful referendum where the people of D.C. voted FOR medical pot, they voted NOT to jail people like Jonathan Magbie for using pot. Prohibitionist propagandists like John Walters wants you to believe that medical marijuana is a lie, a "cruel hoax" as he puts it. Congress decided that it knew better than the D.C. voters, that medical pot was a lie, and that people would use it for menstrual cramps or headaches or hangnails or whatever they said and still say to mock it at the time. These are the people that we can thank for Jonathan Magbie's death. The Post can't yet quite see the connection between medical pot and this man's horrid death. They "forget" Judge Judith Retchin's vindictive anti-marijuana-user bias. The poor man said that pot gave him relief (he was on a respirator and paralyzed from neck down for heaven's sake!) and so to punish him all the more, ignoring the clear wishes of the people of D.C., she sentenced him to what would be his death. Thanks Judith Retchin, you taught the world a lesson there. Too bad the Post ignored THAT most salient angle. Then again, perhaps ignoring such is their function; in that case then the Post should be thanked for a job well done.
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on October 09, 2004 at 20:44:21 PT
Retchin sent that all important "message"
She was "sending a message" to the children...and all of us, when she put Jonathan Magbie in prison for ten days for marijuana possession. 
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on October 09, 2004 at 18:30:16 PT
It's possible that no one "knows" these 
people anymore.http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/10/09/news/community/satloc05.txt
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on October 09, 2004 at 17:36:41 PT
She's saying out loud 
what we all know. Well maybe some people don't know. Jonathan didn't have as much a chance as the Mayor's neice's son.It's who you know...what you know...who you are related to...who will be embarrassed and might have a brother in law on the board that decides whether you get a raise this year or not.It's more than money...it's who you know...what your last name is or who you are married to, always has been. Back when everyone knew everyone nearly...that's why law enforcement treated more people with more respect...they knew them or their mother or brother."Who you know" can sometimes have a bit of influence. Knowing no one ...not even nearly...doomed Mr. Magbie. Another form of of "Who you know"...is knowing a firebrand type person. It was sad that he wasn't related to a firebrand...a mother...a sister....and uncle or a little brother that could and would raise all sorts of Caine until someone did something.It's a shame. It's so horrible and sad. It started when a judge saw an opportunity to show how tough she is. "She'll imprison a quadraplegic for pot! Dang! She's tough!"I really do pity her. Although there are other feelings, too. None of them are 'respect'.I have a feeling that any person who was supposed to be "looking after the prisoner"...could have and should have...done something...raised hell...Blow the damn whistle, already."Sooo...I think the Judge is the most responsible and anyone who went along with it thereafter is culpable, also. And it was wrong. It was an "unfortunate incident" that could have been avoided if anyone had truly had an ounce of compassion or humanity in their heart.
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Comment #12 posted by Dankhank on October 09, 2004 at 14:24:44 PT
Jonathan Magbie
The latest, please the last, probably not, death for using Cannabis.When will it end?
Hemp N Stuff
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Comment #11 posted by Dr Ganj on October 09, 2004 at 12:15:26 PT
Marijuana possession equals death sentence
Mr. Magbie was killed by our drug laws. This is just one more example where the punishment is far worse than the so called "crime". 
Remember Peter McWilliams, where part of his bail agreement forbade him from using cannabis therapy? Remember he had AIDS, and needed marijuana to help keep his other AIDS medications down? Remember him dying in his bathtub after vomiting uncontrollably? 
When are we going to finally realize our drug laws are causing far more harm than the use of the drugs themselves?
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Comment #10 posted by Sam Adams on October 09, 2004 at 10:59:36 PT
Blinders still on at Post
Ah, so they're casting this as "poor guy gets screwed" story. The terrible rich elite screw the poor. That's the problem with the so-called "liberal" papers like the Post, the NY Times, the Boston Globe.  The simple problem here is that cannabis should not be illegal! It could not be more black & white, and easy to solve in a simple, 2-paragraph legislative bill.But they can't think that way. No. Instead, a nebulous accusation of our entire socio-economic system is in order. What actions do they suggest to reform the situation? Nothing useful. They're either closed-minded idiots or, they believe in a nanny-state government that needs to shepherd the poor weak-minded citizens through life. I'm sorry, but I see this silly bleeding-heart type attitude as being just as responsible for continued Prohibition as the Neo-Cons. Either approach means an Orwellian brainwashing, a denial of simple, logicial thinking and problem-solving. It's as a simple as 3 words: leave us alone!
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on October 09, 2004 at 08:41:49 PT
Jonathan Magbie, Martyr
As sad as the trial, incarceration and subsequent negligent death of Jonathan Magbie is, the fact that it happened in Washington, DC, the seat of superstitious science and hysterical politics, highlights the continuing folly of the irrational War on Some Drugs (Plants). The federal government is morally bankrupt, regarding its failure to acknowledge medical cannabis, its persecution of cannabis users, and the rigged science of the NIH/HHS/FDA/DEA/ONDCP/NIDA. This Judge Judith Retchin, following the official US federal government propaganda, made a fatal error, now exposed for the whole country and the whole world to see. "The whole world is watching," we used to chant in the civil rights days. This case shows the immoral impoverishment of the federal position on cannabis.
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Comment #8 posted by OverwhelmSam on October 09, 2004 at 07:13:18 PT
"Yeehaw! One Less Pothead"
I'm sure Bush, Walters and Ashcroft celebrate every time some innocent quadraplegic dies in custody for doing nothing more than violating marijuana possession laws. It was a death sentence for pot, pure and simple. Hopefully, there'll be one less shithead in office in January.
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on October 09, 2004 at 07:02:56 PT
Sacrifice Cannabis not man.
Think about this. Think about this.  Jonathan Magbie was treated with this kind of justice in Washington DC; perhaps the most easily visiable city that represents America. Washington DC.The people that live in that city, have political leaders that would even consider caging a Quadriplegic for a minor amount of cannabis plant material. You would think D.C. (America's capitol) would be the city that would not allow such a soul to be caged for using a plant, but no, DC will be 1st to condemn You for this nonsense.Can Washington DC be considered, “wicked” or the “wicked terratory”? Biblically?& Kaptinemo,"Unfortunately, he's only the latest such victim of the tender mercies of The State. This goes back a long way."Notice the clergy are silent.It too goes back a long way.That observation is relavent.The Seperation of church and state is good and bad.Not just good.The church should be knocking on the governments door; a long way back.And the government should have been knocking on the churches door, a long way back.Notice the silent deal between the two that allows for all this mess.It is all relative to Cannabis prohibition.Many poeple's rock n roll life style ends when Cannabis prohibition ends.Failed clergy will need to find other work, too.420Jonathan MagbieHere at C-news, We may not have known about Jonathan Magbie before His death, but We will remember Jonathan Magbie.Lord help Us.The Bible tells Us to test the spirits.This helps expose spirits. Does it not?The Green Collar Worker 
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on October 09, 2004 at 05:41:17 PT:
Bureaucratic homicide
Namely, I know it's not in the dictionary...but it ought to be. Mr. Magbie's face should be next to the entry. Unfortunately, he's only the latest such victim of the tender mercies of The State. This goes back a long way. And I sincerely doubt he'll be the last. But to date, he's the most egregious example of it in action.
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Comment #5 posted by mayan on October 09, 2004 at 05:07:10 PT
Corvallis Eric
I'm sure you've heard about this, but anyway... Brownsville mayor charged in pot raid:
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/10/09/news/community/satloc05.txtProhibition breeds corruption...Former Officer Faces Drug Charges In Evidence Theft:
http://www.nbc17.com/news/3796869/detail.html
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Comment #4 posted by mayan on October 09, 2004 at 04:52:38 PT
Murder
Magbie was murdered, pure and simple. Somebody should be held accountable and caged themselves.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 08, 2004 at 22:23:37 PT
Paul
It's good to see you. This story is so terribly sad.
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Comment #2 posted by paulpeterson on October 08, 2004 at 22:20:01 PT
FoM
Amen.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 08, 2004 at 21:13:20 PT
Jonathan Magbie
I'm glad they are keeping this story in the news.
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