Sunday, July 23, 2006

Criminal Law III: More on the NOLA murder prosecutions

AP/Yahoo has an article today entitled, "Many see accused New Orleans MD as hero." State AG made much of the fact that both morphine and Versed were found in the the bodies of the four patients whose deaths were the basis for his order to arrest Dr. Pou and the two nurses. Contrary to his assertion that the two drugs together can mean only one thing -- that the health care workers' intent was to produce the patients' death -- "Dr. Daniel Nuss (Dr. Pou's department head at LSU) and other doctors said the morphine and Versed that investigators found in the patients' bodies are commonly given to relieve suffering and anxiety. 'If you didn't find sedatives and analgesics in these people, I would think that was inhumane,' [Dr. Ben] deBoisblanc[, director of critical care at Charity Hospital] said. 'The very fact that you found these drugs means nothing.'"

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