Newsbrief:
Federal
Prosecutors
Ask
Life
Sentence
for
Dr.
Hurwitz
3/11/05
Federal prosecutors are seeking to send nationally-known Virginia pain specialist Dr. William Hurwitz to prison for life. In a memo filed in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Tuesday, prosecutors argued Hurwitz deserved a life sentence because he "blatantly violated his Hippocratic Oath," his "criminal behavior was simply disgraceful," and he lied on the witness stand. But while prosecutors portrayed him as craven drug dealer, many supporters believe he is unjustly convicted and many patients, including some who testified at his trial and others who came hundreds of miles to attend in moral support, see him as a humane, life-saving physician. Hurwitz is the prominent, cutting edge pain specialist who was convicted in federal court in Alexandria in December of over-prescribing opioid pain medications and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in a trial that put the clash between the imperatives of drug law enforcers and those of medicine, and pain management in particular, in stark relief. Relying on the testimony of a group of related Hurwitz patients themselves facing drug charges, who never testified that Hurwitz conspired with them, as well as expert medical testimony that has since been discredited, prosecutors convinced a federal jury that Hurwitz' medical practice was beyond the pale. Hurwitz's defense attorneys, supporters, medical associations, and pain relief experts expressed nearly uniform dismay, anger, and shock at the prosecutors' request. The request is "absolutely insane and way beyond the realm of rationality," Hurwitz defense attorney Marvin Miller told the Washington Post. "This is obscene." It is not surprising that Miller would stick up for his client, but expressions of concern are also coming from leading pain relief experts. "That's really something. That's unbelievable," said Russell Portenoy, chairman of pain medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "Such an extreme sentence sends the message to the medical community that the government will continue to go after doctors." Portenoy was one of a group of academic pain specialists who worked with the DEA for years in an abortive effort to arrive at pain pill prescribing guidelines that would satisfy both law enforcement and medical imperatives. The American Academy of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a 60-year-old organization representing private doctors, also weighed in calling for lenient treatment for Hurwitz even before prosecutors announced they were seeking a life sentence. A life sentence for Hurwitz would be "a travesty," AAPS said in a February letter to presiding Judge Leonard Wexler. "He is someone who took his professional obligations to his patients very seriously and did his utmost to help the most ill among us. He published his work in the medical literature and shared his experiences and research results by speaking at medical conferences, including ours. He is certainly not a drug dealer to be incarcerated for nearly the rest of his life. Dr. Hurwitz is someone we all admire, the criminal actions of a tiny percentage of his patients notwithstanding." Citing false expert testimony by prosecution witness Dr. Michael Ashburn -- his testimony has been authoritatively challenged by a group of past presidents of the American Pain Society -- the AAPS challenged the validity of his conviction. "A conviction based on this false medical testimony should not stand, and, respectfully, sentencing should not rest on it," the group wrote under the signature of its president, Dr. Jane Orient. Dr. Hurwitz is scheduled to be sentenced April 14. Given the controversy that has only increased as he was hunted, indicted, tried, and convicted, that hearing could be highly contentious.
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