Posts Tagged With: drug trafficking

Review of the outcome of the Shaygan Govt Misconduct hearings in which Dr. Shaygan’s Govt. Prosecutors concede to witness tampering and violation of discovery obligations to the defense, amongst other offenses. Link to PDF of Govt’s Response brief to Shaygan’s Motions for Sanctions.

Blog post about phone conversation with incarcerated Dr. William Hurwitz about recent prescription drug propaganda, and about a planned government appeal of his sentence, in which case the Hurwitz Defense would appeal the conviction.

Blog post noting date and time of Hurwitz sentencing. Link to full text pdf of the Hurwitz Aid in Sentencing Memorandum: a copy of the sentencing memo that Dr. Hurwitz’s lawyers filed last Friday which requests the court to impose a sentence of time served. The memo was accompanied by some 75 letters that many of you wrote to Judge Brinkema in support of Dr. Hurwitz. Many of the letters were quoted in the sentencing memo. We are grateful to you for your time and effort in writing these letters.

First of a series of blog posts regarding the trial of pain doctor William Mangino. Excerpt: “The prosecution asked only one question on cross examination of defense expert Dr. Tennant. The prosecution brought forth no further expert testimony. The defense felt Tennant’s testimony was sufficiently strong and his credibility and professional stature so huge relative to the prosecution expert, and that the prosecution had failed to make it’s case. And so on 2007-07-03, the defense choose not to call it’s second defense expert (myself) and choose not to put Dr. Mangino on the stand, and rested.”

Thanks to Alex Coolman of the most excellent Drug Law Blog for snagging yet another AG Tom Corbett war on doctors case that had slipped by me. I think this makes three unrelated doc scalps for Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett in a neat seven days. Wow. Impressive.

War on Doctors/Pain Crisis blog post about the Amicus Curia brief in support of Dr. McIver’s Writ of Certiori to the Supreme Court. Link to full text PDF of the brief.

Press release from the Pain Relief Network Re: moral victory in St. Thomas in the case of Dr. Maynard, who was sentenced to 7 months which was less than sentencing guidelines.

Blog post about ongoing excellent journalistic coverage of retrial of Dr. William Hurwitz on drug trafficking charges. Lots of links by Szalavitz, Balko, Tierney and to Ken Moore’s recent Pain Doctor’s Trial, and to collections of related resources including reader comments in response to Hurwitz coverage.

Letter from the Hurwitz family to the Pain Relief advocacy community reviewing Dr. Hurwitz’ retrial in great detail, noting the excellent work of their pro bono attorneys Sauber and Rollins and their offices.

More observations from Hurwitz retrial watcher Mary Baluss, Esp. Here Mary describes in greater detail the discussion between judge and prosecutors immediately after the Verdict was rendered by the jury.

Brief excerpt and link to full text of John Tierney blog entry regarding the verdict in the retrial of Dr. William Hurwitz. “One of the jurors left the courthouse in tears, and others whom I talked to said it had been a wrenching decision for all of them because they believed Dr. Hurwitz was a compassionate doctor.”

Excerpt from Mary Baluss, courtroom observer: “They were given the standard “good faith” instruction which I don’t like since it talks about the honest exercise of “best” professional judgment. But they were also clearly and carefully instructed about the difference between malpractice and drug distribution. They also got the “willful blindness” (ostrich) instruction and were told that it is possible to determine the requisite scienter (knowingly, wilfully) from that.”

Dr. William Hurwitz concludes an October 2006 letter sent to friends and colleagues to raise money for his defense: “It has been over 20 years since Dr. Portenoy put the issue of opioid treatment of chronic pain on the professional and social agenda. Yet the struggle to set this treatment on a secure legal and social foundation is far from over. Patients continue to suffer, not only from unrelieved pain, but from the suspicion and neglect of a frightened medical community. My case presents an opportunity to establish humane boundaries for pain practice and to expose the …