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News of the Day ... In PerspectiveDr. Knox pleads guilty to four counts, down from 313Cecil Knox, M.D., of Roanoke, VA, has entered a plea agreement rather than face a second trial that was to have begun in October. His first trial on 69 of 313 original charges ended in acquittal on about half, and a hung jury on the rest. Dr. Knox pleaded guilty to �racketeering,� two counts of marijuana distribution, and misdemeanor health care fraud. The �racketeering� consisted of two instances of prescribing diet pills to a patient who agreed to share them with him. This and the marijuana counts came to light in Dr. Knox�s own testimony in the first trial. The government apparently abandoned its entire case, in which it had portrayed Dr. Knox as a menace to society. Dr. Knox, who is suffering from lymphoma, also agreed to surrender his medical license and DEA registration. �It�s clear that Knox was not in all respects a by-the-book doctor,� writes Jacob Sullum. �But it�s equally clear that the Justice Department�s indictments were ridiculously inflated�and based on allegations it could not prove�. [T]he strategy of intimidating defendants into guilty pleas by turning every alleged act into multiple offenses is a conspicuous feature of the DEA�s war on doctors (reason.com). Additional information: Government fails to convict Dr. Knox on a single count. News of the Day 10/30/03. �Hung jury in case of Dr. Cecil Knox� and �Try, try again,� AAPS News, December 2003, p. 3. �Doctors say US Drug policy forces pain patients to extreme measures, turns doctors into criminals,� AAPS Press Release 10/2/03. Conviction rates and plea bargains
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