By Walter F. Roche Jr.
Lawyers for a former pharmacist charged with 11 counts of second degree murder told the Michigan Supreme Court today that prosecutors have still failed to prove their client performed any act that caused the deaths.
In a six-page filing, the lawyers for Glenn Chin said that even if Glenn Chin's callousness "may have allowed something (the contamination) to occur," prosecutors still must show that Chin did something to cause the deaths.
It wasn't enough to show Chin was a "bad boss," the filing continues, noting that attorneys from the Michigan Attorney General's never even tried to say what Chin actually did that led to the deaths of 11 Michigan patients.
The appeals by Chin and co-defendant Barry Cadden to the state's Supreme Court are the latest development in the legal aftermath of the 2012 fungal meningitis that eventually took the lives of more than 100 patients across the country.
Chin was the pharmacist in charge of the clean room where contaminated steroids were prepared before they were shipped to dozens of health care providers.
Chin's lawyer, Kevin S. Gentry, was also critical of prosecutors claim that Chin's actions were comparable to a drunk driver who gets behind the wheel and kills innocent bystanders.
The drunken driver actually did something that caused the deaths, Gentry argued, while Chin did nothing.
In a filing on Feb. 18, the Attorney General's office had argued that Chin did take actions that led to the deaths.
"Chin ordered technicians to forego cleaning and ordered that medicatiom be distributed under the false representation that it had been compounded under proper standards," the 29 page prosecution filing states.
Noting that the contaminated drugs were prepared in Chin's clean room, the prosecution filing concluded, "Chin was the person doling out these instructions."
Chin's lawyers have argued that due to the lack of evidence the charges never should have been approved for presentation to a jury.
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