In a courtroom crowded with spectators and supporters, Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch was sentenced today in federal court to one year and one day in prison.

Lynch, 47, appeared this morning in the Los Angeles federal courtroom of U.S. District Judge George Wu.

Lynch was convicted of five offenses last year for running Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers, a medical marijuana store in San Luis Obispo County. (See: "Chronic City: The Sad Case of Charlie Lynch, April 23.) He sought leniency after Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal agents will no longer target medical marijuana distributors in states where medical pot is legal. Holder didn't indicate how the Obama administration's new approach would impact pending cases like Lynch's.

The Department of Justice sought the mandatory minimum sentence of five years, despite Judge Wu's statement at a previous hearing that he doesn't think this case "is one which merits a mandatory minimum." A legal brief recently filed by the Department of Justice called the legality of Lynch's conduct under California law "irrelevant" to his sentence.

Wu found the Lynch's case merited an exception to the mandatory minimum stenence. The judge said he felt, however, he was bound by the law to issue at least a one-year prison term.

Before Lynch's dispensary was raided by federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in March 2007, the store had operated for 11 months without incident, and with the approval of the Morro Bay City Council and the local Chamber of Commerce.

Lynch was charged with conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute marijuana and concentrated cannabis, "manufacturing" (growing) more than 100 plants, knowingly maintaining a drug premises, and selling marijuana to a minor (under federal rules, someone under age 21). None of the federal charges represent violations of state or local law.

Lynch faced the possibility of up to 20 years in federal prison due to the amount of marijuana involved -- more than 100 kilograms -- and because his dispensary sold to a teen cancer patient (with the approval of the teen's parents).

Lynch obtained a business license from the city, held a grand opening in 2006, hired a security guard, enforced membership rules, ran surveillance cameras, and gave guided tours of the dispensary to anyone who asked, according to his attorney, Robert Schultz.

Lynch's case is one of more than two dozen pending federal cases, according to Joe Elford of the national medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA).