Benton Mackenzie is a man living under a death sentence. He suffers from angiosarcoma, a rare type of aggressive skin cancer which only 30% of patients can survive in the first five years. Mackenzie's case is considered terminal, and so he tried a radical treatment: he grew medical marijuana in his parent's home because he felt treating his cancerous skin lesions with seed resin was a safer alternative than the conventional treatment: being pumped full of toxic chemicals in the hope they kill the cancer before they kill the human being (oh, pardon me, I mean "patient").

But it gets worse, his defense team has been gagged from discussing his illness because the presiding judge recently denied the motion that he was simply growing the plants as a form of alternative therapy to treat his terminal cancer. Neither he nor his defense team will be allowed to raise his illness to the jury as a result of this decision.

On July 7th, Mackenzie was rushed to the hospital on a stretcher from the courtroom after abruptly collapsing from extreme pain, anemia, and pain induced hallucinations. The jury was protected from witnessing this scene of a seriously endangered Mackenzie because it might understandably make them feel compassion for the life which is at stake from their decision.



Personally, I'm not a lawyer. But I thought the law and our courts were supposed to based on the value of serving justice. But no justice can be found in this case.



I'm asking you to join me in calling on Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to insert sanity into this case by pardoning Benton Mackenzie of all wrong-doing. Other states have gone so far as legalizing recreational marijuana use; Mackenzie is fighting for his life and his freedom at the same time because he wanted a real chance to survive a lethal cancer, and this is a travesty we cannot accept. We cannot allow this miscarriage of justice. The judge who denied Mackenzie the chance to present all the facts of the case to the jury is playing with another man's life. This is not justice. Please sign this petition.

"Evil previals not because of evil men, but because good men do nothing."

-Edmund Burke