UPDATE: DOCTOR CONVICTED OF DRUG CONSPIRACY TO BE RETRIED

In late 2004, a federal jury in Alexandria convicted a McLean doctor
on charges that galvanized a national debate over the prescribing of
powerful painkillers.

Prosecutors argued that when a doctor prescribes large doses of
narcotics to patients who abuse or sell the medication, the doctor
needs to be held responsible. Advocates said the enforcement would
adversely affect a growing number of chronic-pain patients suffering
from cancer or other illnesses.

The six-week trial of former pain doctor William E. Hurwitz featured
more than 60 prosecution witnesses and audiotapes of the doctor
unknowingly talking to patients who were government informants. At
Hurwitz's sentencing, the courtroom in U.S. District Court was crammed
with his supporters.

Now, the two sides are getting ready to do it all again.

A federal appeals court recently threw out Hurwitz's conviction, and
prosecutors have decided to retry him instead of appealing the
decision further. A trial date is set for March 7, prosecutors said.

Hurwitz's lawyers, meanwhile, are trying to get him released from
prison before the retrial, and a bond hearing has been scheduled for
Oct. 12. Hurwitz was free on bond during his first trial but was
ordered into custody as soon as he was convicted in December 2004. A
federal judge recently signed an order transferring Hurwitz from the
Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md., to the Alexandria
Detention Center, according to court records.

Hurwitz is perhaps the most prominent doctor to be targeted in a
federal crackdown on what authorities call overprescribing of
OxyContin and other painkillers. Patient advocates have strongly
supported Hurwitz and expressed concerns that his conviction would
have a chilling effect on the willingness of doctors to write
prescriptions for chronic pain.

Jurors convicted Hurwitz of running a drug conspiracy out of his
office and trafficking in narcotics, causing the death of one patient
and seriously injuring two others. They found him guilty on 50 counts,
acquitted him on nine counts and deadlocked on three. Hurwitz, then
59, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals last month overturned the conviction and
granted Hurwitz a new trial. A three-judge panel acknowledged that
prosecutors presented "powerful" evidence but said that U.S. District
Judge Leonard D. Wexler improperly told jurors they could not consider
whether Hurwitz acted in "good faith" when he prescribed large amounts
of OxyContin and other painkillers -- in one instance, 1,600 pills a
day.