Word: oteri
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Oteri pursued a pragmatic strategy: stress the savings in governmental expenditures that decriminalization provides, focusing on key legislators who have opposed the bill in the past. The nationally famous trial lawyer placed a priority on convincing opposition figures that support of HR-4914 would not bring defeat at re-election time. To prove his point, Oteri drew upon NORML monies to conduct a poll of Flaherty's own district in South Boston to gauge the extent of popular support for decriminalization in a reputedly conservative district. Harvard Business School students undertook the task of actually surveying these constituents...
...Oteri game plan now proceeded to the stage of lining up witnesses to testify before the Judiciary Committee hearings held several week ago. Cognizant that most of the committee members were trial lawyers by training. Oteri sought testimony that would underline two recurring themes: the present penalties for marijuana possession served both to bog down courts and tie up valuable law enforcement manpower on the one hand, and to eat up unnecessary amounts of the tax-payers dollars...
...echoes Lawson and Murphy on the subject of Pat Horton, adding his own emphasis. "The biggest case for decriminalization was made by the D.A. from Oregon," Flaherty says. Publicly a fence-straddler at the present time, Flaherty is considered a closet supporter of the bill by both Murphy and Oteri, and Murphy includes the South Boston representative among the fourteen members on the 21-man panel who will probably vote for a favorable report...
...Drug Abuse established during the Nixon administration. A blue-ribbon group of establishment notables, the commission spent millions of dollars in extensive analysis and published its findings in March 1972 in Marijuana: Signal of Misunderstanding. It was a book that former President Nixon did not care to read. Oteri notes, "Farnsworth was a man who turned 180 degrees in his position and had the guts to admit it publicly; the reps had to respect that...
...session of the Massachusetts legislature, but feels that the unprecedented Judiciary Committee action may be the deciding factor. "The fact that the House chairman (Flaherty), regarded as a conservative, and the Senate chairman, considered a liberal, come out the same way will mean something," he says. Oteri believes the bill has a 50-50 chance, but it is co-sponsor Murphy who sounds the most pessimistic note of all. Asked for a candid assessment of the bill's chances, Murphy says, "I would love to say yes, it will pass this year, but my feeling is this...