An appellate court has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a Franklin man who was arrested for growing marijuana that he used to treat symptoms of his multiple sclerosis. An appellate court has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a Franklin man who was arrested for growing marijuana that he used to treat symptoms of his multiple sclerosis.

The ruling issued Tuesday morning rejects John Ray Wilson’s appeal that he was entitled to a “personal use defense” at trial and that his five-year state prison sentence was excessive.

Wilson, 38, was arrested in August 2008 after a National Guard helicopter pilot spotted his marijuana patch behind his rented home on Skillmans Lane in Franklin. His attorney has said he began growing his own marijuana to treat the symptoms of MS because he did not have insurance and could not afford prescriptions.

But a trial judge in 2009 barred Wilson from asserting the personal use defense and from referencing his medical condition at trial. He was convicted in December of that year of second-degree manufacturing marijuana plants and third-degree possession of psilocybin mushrooms, then sentenced the following March.

Wilson was released from prison on $15,000 bail pending an appeal of his conviction.

On Tuesday, the three-judge appellate panel wrote that it found no abuse of discretion or error of judgment by the trial court.

“Although we sympathize with defendant's medical condition, the record is devoid of any evidence that he will not obtain satisfactory medical treatment while incarcerated,” the judges wrote in the 15-page opinion. “As a result, we agree with the trial court's determination that there are no extraordinary mitigating factors in this case.”

His conviction and subsequent sentence drew outcry from medical marijuana advocates and state senators, who called for him to be pardoned by then-Gov. Jon S. Corzine and then Gov. Chris Christie.