The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Dr. Smithers because jury instructions misstated the law, according to the report.
Dr. Smithers allegedly prescribed controlled substances including fentanyl, hydromorphone, oxycodone and oxymorphone to every patient at his office. He allegedly collected more than $700,000 in cash payments before he was arrested in March 2017, and he was convicted on 861 counts in May 2019.
According to the report, the conviction was thrown out following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said overprescribing controlled substances requires a defendant to act “knowingly or intentionally” in an unauthorized manner.
