A Virginia doctor who was sentenced to 40 years in prison after prescribing more than half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years has been granted a new trial by a federal appeals court. A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that instructions given to jurors at the trial of Dr. Joel Smiths misstated the law. Smithers was convicted in 2019 of more than 800 counts of illegally prescribing drugs. The appeals court panel said the jury instruction was improper, citing a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said a defendant must “knowingly or intentionally” act in an unauthorized manner to be guilty of illegally prescribing drugs.
