RIBBONS, STARS SIGNIFY INTENSITY OF KNOX CASE

The Doctor's Supporters Wear Green Ribbons, While the Prosecution Team
Sports a Triangle of Stars.

For some people involved in the case of Roanoke pain specialist Cecil
Byron Knox and two of his associates, the case has become a crusade.

Knox backers wear sage green ribbons each day as they congregate in
the federal building to show their support.

Members of the prosecution team have worn circular pins that feature
an upside-down triangle of stars. The design also decorates the front
of binders federal prosecutors Rusty Fitzgerald and Pat Hogeboom have
used in their case.

As the jury in the case enters its sixth day of deliberation today,
each side is waiting for the decision of the 12 jurors . And each side
has its own fierce convictions and symbols and has arranged a
makeshift network to let people know when the verdict comes in.

The "Knox Crusaders" in the lobby of the federal building are there
each morning as the jury comes in, a silent reminder to the jurors
that Knox, his office manager Beverly Gale Boone, and licensed
professional counselor Willard Newbill James have their supporters.

The group includes Z.M. Terry of Christiansburg, who has worn a green
ribbon for Knox and his associates since they were arrested in
February 2002. Terry said that in alternative medicine, the color
green signifies the heart.

"It's nerve-wracking to wait and anticipate what is to come," said
Terry. "So many wonderful peoples' lives are hanging in the balance."
Knox was the only doctor out of the 50 or 60 she said she saw who
diagnosed her correctly and helped her get out of a wheelchair.

The group has also included Joann Sullivan of Berkeley, Calif., and
her brother, David Luke Knox, a neurosurgeon in Arkansas.

And it even includes Richard Evans, a manufacturer's representative
from Roanoke, who didn't know Knox before the trial, but came to
support James. But he said the evidence he heard in the case turned
him into a Knox supporter.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Fitzgerald would not comment on what the
upside-down triangle of stars signified, citing the ongoing
deliberations.

Tammy Akers, a sister of Tracy Lynn Akers, is also waiting for the
verdict at her home in Roanoke - for a very different reason than the
Knox supporters.

"They should be held accountable for participating in his death,"
Akers said of Knox and Boone. She said federal agent Gregg Wood said
he would call her when the verdict came in so she could come down to
the courthouse.

She argued that Knox turned her brother, who was a quadriplegic, into
a man who could barely hold up his head.

Akers added that Knox and Boone ignored repeated calls from her
brother's doctors at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, who contacted
the practice after Akers overdosed four times from medication she said
Knox prescribed.

"He didn't deserve to go out like that," Akers argued. "He trusted Dr.
Knox." But she added that the outcome of the case was "in God's hands."