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United States v. Wood, 207 F.3d 1222 (10th Cir. 2000). [LII] $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Dr. C. Douglas Wood was charged with first- and second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with his administration of a lethal dose of potassium chloride to an 86-year-old man with severe abdominal pain. The District Court found him guilty of manslaughter, but acquitted him on the other two counts. This opinion reverses the determination of manslaughter and remands the case for a new trial based on the cumulative error theory. Although the court found evidence of the proper mens rea for manslaughter, the District Court erred by denying Wood’s motion for judgment by acquittal and admitting prejudicial expert testimony, which deprived Wood of his right to a fair trial.

State v. Naramore, 965 P.2d 211 (Kan. Ct. App. 1998). [Findlaw] $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: In proceedings below, Dr. Lloyd Stanley Naramore, an osteopathic physician, was convicted of attempted murder and intentional and malicious second-degree murder resulting from his treatment of a 78-year-old woman with terminal cancer and an 81-year-old diabetic man with heart disease. This Court of Appeals of Kansas decision fails to find a medical consensus that Naramore’s actions in administering pain-lessoning drugs and ceasing resuscitation attempts were homicidal. Naramore was therefore acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Additional information and reporting on the Naramore decision are to be found under Commentaries.

People v. Schade, 32 Cal. Rptr. 2d 59 (Cal. Ct. App. 1994). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Dr. Hugh Schade was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after prescribing the drug Darvocet, a narcotic, to a severely depressed patient who was a known drug addict. The court noted that Schade failed to look for the origin of the patient’s pain, and that Schade’s irresponsible prescribing practices facilitated the suicide of the patient.

Gilbert v. State, 487 So. 2d 1185 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986). $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: In this case, a seventy-five year old man’s conviction of first-degree, premeditated murder was affirmed. The man shot his wife of fifty-one years who was suffering from osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s and took Percodan for severe arthritis pain, at her insistence that she wanted to die. The court held that the trial court did not commit error by failing to instruct the jury on euthanasia because euthanasia is not a defense to first-degree murder.

Psychiatrist convicted in deaths of 5 patients, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, July 12, 2000, at 7A. $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Article reports the conviction of Dr. Robert Weitzel on two counts of manslaughter and three counts of negligent homicide after five of his elderly patients died of fatal doses of morphine. Weitzel maintained that he was merely trying to ease the pain of his terminally ill patients.

Susan Levine, Mask of Old Age Hides Killings, WASHINGTON POST, Dec. 31, 2000, at A1. $[Lexis] $[Westlaw]
Summary: Weitzel was convicted of manslaughter and negligent homicide in connection with the deaths of five elderly patients of morphine overdoes. The article discusses allegations that Weitzel, a psychiatrist, over sedated the patients on antipsychotic drugs and then overdosed them on morphine.