Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Supreme Court Rules Doctor Will Recieve New Trial
A doctor accused of helping supply OxyContin and other powerful narcotics to addicts in Appalachia will get a new trial according to a ruling issued by the Kentucky Supreme Court today. Dr. Fortune J. Williams was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a Lewis County jury found him guilty of four counts of unlawfully prescribing medications. Justice William Graves said in a 23-page ruling that detectives violated Williams’s constitutional rights by raiding his medical office without a search warrant. For that reason, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. Federal and state law enforcement agencies began cracking down on wayward physicians in Appalachia in 2000, after OxyContin, a powerful painkiller intended for cancer patients and others suffering from severe pain, began showing up in large quantities on the black market.
# posted by Justin Mullins @ 3:20 PM 
