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Joseph Campbell: "Follow Your Bliss!"
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John P. Flannery - before oral argument in Richard Paey's case (February 2006) - fielding questions from reporters with Siobhan Reynolds, the President and Founder of the Pain Relief Network; this argument led to John's book, "Pain in America - and how our Government makes it worse."; and to testifying before Congress on "DEA's Regulation of Medicine."
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THE CASE OF DR. WILLIAM NUCKLOS ---
Dr. Nucklos was prosecuted in the State of Ohio for treating his chronic pain patients. Upon his conviction, we challenged his confinement pending appeal, and the Court of Appeals released him pending the outcome of his appeal. On appeal, we attacked how fundamentally unfair was the jury selection in his case, the partiality of his tribunal, the evidence that was offered having nothing to do with the prosecution, and the instructions to the jury that shifted the burden of proof to Dr. Nucklos. On March 9, 2007, the Court of Appeals reversed Dr. Nucklos' conviction and remanded it to the trial court for a new trial. The State asked the Supreme Court of Ohio to grant an appeal to reconsider what the Court of Appeals decided; we submitted a brief in opposition. The critical documents in that appeal (our appellate brief, the court decision, and our memorandum in opposition) are attached for your review. Dr. Nucklos is waiting to hear from the court before the case may be retried again.
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RICHARD PAEY -- prosecuted because he was a pain patient but, as if, he were a drug dealer because he needed and had prescribed pain medication -- Convicted at his third trial of trafficking, treated in prison with more pain medication than prompted his 25 year mandatory sentence, we argued the appeal, and eight months after oral argument, the Court of Appeals issued a split decision. All on the court agreed that the 25 year mandatory sentence that Richard received for "trafficking" when he did nothing of the sort was unjust. Two of the judges didn't think, however, that the courts had the power to act. The Court told Richard that the injustice of his 25-year sentence didn't fall on "deaf ears," just on the "wrong ears" and they commended Richard to ask the Governor for clemency.
And that's what we did. We asked the Governor and the Cabinet to grant him clemency. The Governor had to first waive certain requirements to consider Richard's petition for clemency. Richard was moved ahead of hundreds of other petitions and, on the recommendation of the Florida Parole Board, the waiver was granted. In September, 2007, we argued before the full cabinet. But this time the Parole Board was recommending against clemency, and we were limited to a 5 minute presentation. When we appeared before the cabinet we convinced them to give us almost an hour. The cabinet went us one better. They didn't just grant Richard's request for clemency, they granted him a full pardon.
We have included the Court of Appeals split decision, Congressional testimony discussing Richard's case, our petition for clemency, and several other documents - if you want to read more details about Richard's case.
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DR. RON MCIVER .. was another physician whose crime was that he cared for pain patients. We handled the appeal to the 4th Circuit US Court of Appeals, asked them to reconsider their adverse decision, and then asked the Supreme Court of the United States to consider the case - all to no avail. Dr. McIver remains in federal custody.
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