SC man convicted of murder sues because prison won’t give him marijuana
COLUMBIA, S.C. December 18 2018 — A man is suing the South Carolina Department of Corrections because his maximum-security prison won’t let him smoke marijuana, The State reports.
James Rose, 41, is serving time in the McCormick Correctional Institution after a 2013 murder conviction.
He says the prison is violating his religious freedoms as a Rastafarian.
“I grew dreadlocks as a part of my Rastafarian religion and asked to be accommodated with marijuana as part of my religion and practice,” Rose wrote in the lawsuit, The State reports.
He adds that his religion also allows him to grow his hair to “unlimited length” but claims prison officials held him down and shaved the dreadlocks off his head.
Rose is serving out a life sentence after a court found him responsible for the 2012 murder of Leland Shannon Jr., who was shot to death in front of one of his children.
