Virginia pain doctor acquitted of some charges in case involving seven patients' deaths

Associated Press ^ | 10-31-03

[Brian S]

Federal prosecutors failed to win a single conviction Friday against a pain specialist accused of illegally prescribing medication, including the powerful narcotic OxyContin, that contributed to the deaths of seven patients.

After a seven-week trial and more than a week of deliberations, a jury found Dr. Cecil Byron Knox III innocent of some of the 69 charges against him but was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining counts, prompting Judge Samuel Wilson to declare a mistrial.

[Grenada]

Boy, what about the days when your doctor determined what medication one needed. How can the government say that you didn't NEED a certain medication? I wish doctors were in charge of what meds, tests, and procedures I needed....Imagine.

[Grenada]

There must be no evidence against this guy, because juries tend to be hostile to doctors. My husband works for a guy who was sued for performing a tubal with signed consent and a witness. The women came back a year later saying she didn't know the surgery would leave her in fertile...she won 12 million dollars.

[Grenada]

excuse me, INFERTILE.

[Lawdoc]

Amen!

[kenth]

Maybe he was just excersizing their right to die.

[CobaltBlue]

The biggest difference is, you're in Louisiana and this other trial was in Virginia. Very very different juries.

I went to law school in Louisiana, and clerked for a plaintiff's personal injury law firm. My bosses were extremely rich.

Certain places have very generous juries. Plaintiff lawyers prefer to have certain minorities on the juries, especially American blacks and Central American Hispanics because they are generous with insurance money.

So, plaintiff's personal injury lawyers in DC are also typically extremely rich.

In Virginia, on the other hand, it's hard to get a big verdict. The jurors tend to identify with the establishment, as it were. A local judge says they have a high tolerance for other people's pain.