DOCTOR GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER IN OXYCONTIN CASE

A doctor was found guilty of manslaughter Tuesday in the OxyContin overdose
deaths of four patients.

Dr. James Graves, who was Florida's top prescriber of the powerful
painkiller, was convicted of four counts of manslaughter, one count of
racketeering and five counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled
substance. He faces up to 30 years in prison.

Graves, 55, is the nation's first doctor to stand trial on manslaughter or
murder charges in the OxyContin death of a patient.

Graves showed no emotion when the court clerk read the verdict. Circuit
Court Judge Kenneth Bell revoked Graves' bail, but before bailiffs led him
to jail he was allowed to hug his wife Alicia and children. His adult son,
Jimmy, and daughter, Jordan, were in tears.

The jury had deliberated 4 hours and 25 minutes.

Prosecutor Russell Edgar estimated that Graves brought in $500,000 a year
from his practice. The doctor had testified he had up to 1,000 patients at
his pain management offices in Pace and Brewton, Ala.

"The defendant in effect put people in a chemical straitjacket," Edgar said
during his closing argument on Tuesday. "It was to his financial benefit to
do so and ... also it served his ego."

The practice was closed after less than two years when Graves was arrested
in 2000.

Graves told jurors he did not know his patients were abusing drugs and said
no one would have died if OxyContin had been taken as prescribed.

"OxyContin is a good drug if it is taken properly," said defense lawyer
H.E. Ellis Jr. "Pharmacy companies don't spend billions of dollars
developing drugs if they are going to kill people."

OxyContin is a 12-hour synthetic opiate. Addicts defeat the time delay and
get a heroin-like high by chewing the pills or crushing them and then
injecting the drug.

Edgar said Graves needed money after he was forced out of the Navy and
fired from jobs at a Pensacola pain clinic and a state prison. He said the
money rolled in as patients, most paying cash, returned repeatedly to feed
their addictions.

"Word spread that he was the go-to doctor," Edgar said Monday. "He's no
different than a drug dealer."

Ellis admitted that Graves' record keeping was poor, but said jurors would
find evidence of a doctor practicing medicine, not indiscriminately
prescribing drugs.

Two dozen pharmacists testified they stopped filling what they called
"Graves cocktails" that included Lortab, another painkiller, the
tranquilizer Xanax and the muscle relaxant Soma besides OxyContin.

"Each one of these were popular street drugs," Edgar told the jury. "In the
case of OxyContin, one pill sold for $50. The defendant knew that."