Chin in Final Supreme Court Plea

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Charging that Michigan prosecutors have still failed to provide a key element in a second degree murder case, lawyers for a former Massachusetts pharmacist are asking the state's highest court to effectively erase the charges against their client.
In a five-page filing with the Michigan Supreme Court lawyers for Glenn Chin say prosecutors have still failed to identify a single act by the former pharmacist that led to the deaths of 11 patients.
"There must have been an act, not just an attitude," the filing states.
Chin and co-defendant Barry Cadden were charged with 11 counts of second degree murder for their roles in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak. Both were tied to the New England Componding Center, the company that shipped thousands of vials of a steroid riddled with deadly fungus to health providers across the country.
"They simply can't say what act it was," the brief states, adding that all the prosecution can do is say "Somehow, somewhere, some act that was somehow his (Chin's) fault must have occurred."
Citing the example of a Navy captain who has grounded his ship and can be stripped of his rank, the brief states that a higher standard is required for a second degree murder charge.
Second degree murder requires a "specific act," the brief concludes. Lawyers for Chin and Cadden are asking the state's high court to overturn the decision of a Livingston County judge who concluded there was sufficient evidence against the two to put the case before a jury.
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