No Mercy for Pot Grower

Whatever you believe about the legalization of marijuana, the fact remains that people who grow, sell and use it today are people who are willing to break the law for their purposes.  Scofflaws is the old word for it.

Here's the story of one such scofflaw, from the Knoxville News Sentinel:

His attorney asked for mercy.

A federal jury Wednesday showed none, delivering two guilty verdicts for this 70-year-old retired plumber accused of ambushing a group of lawmen.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Phillips ordered William T. Hendricks immediately jailed pending sentencing on the jury's finding that the retiree assaulted with deadly intent a federal officer and knowingly discharged a gun in the process.

He faces a minimum mandatory 10-year prison term. 

After the verdicts were announced, Hendricks' wife called TVA Police Sgt. Robert Klyce a "lying (expletive)" before leaving the courtroom via a walker. Klyce, as the sole federal officer in the group of lawmen fired on by Hendricks in August 2004, was the lead agent in the case.

Her reaction mirrored the mannerisms of her husband during much of the two-day trial.

Despite defense attorney Doug Trant's attempts to quiet Hendricks, he often laughed out loud during officers' testimony. At one point Hendricks took off his eyeglasses and offered them up to TBI Agent Alex Rodriguez when Trant was quizzing the agent on whether he saw a "no trespassing" sign posted on a pole on Hendricks' Roane County property. …
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Cook told jurors that Hendricks already had been shown mercy – by the very lawmen he fired on."Those officers had every reason, every justification to shoot the defendant," he said. "But they didn't. Every day these officers go out in the streets and enforce our laws. They live with the comfort that those same laws will protect them if they are assaulted." …