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Court Upholds Plague Expert’s Conviction
A federal appeals court upheld convictions of former Texas Tech professor Thomas Butler, who in 2003 said that 30 vials of plague bacteria were missing or stolen from the university, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, April 15, 2004). Butler, who was convicted in 2003 on 47 of 69 charges, is serving a two-year sentence. Most of the guilty verdicts stemmed from charges that he defrauded the university’s health sciences center, according to AP. Butler was acquitted of the most serious charges of smuggling and illicitly transporting the bacteria and of lying to federal agents. He was found guilty of the mislabeling and unauthorized export of a package containing plague samples he sent to Tanzania, AP reported. Butler’s attorney, Jonathan Turley, said the three-judge 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel made “glaring and fundamental errors” in its review of Butler’s case. Butler could ask the full circuit court to review the case or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, AP reported. “Everything is under consideration,” Turley said (Betsy Blaney, Associated Press/Star-Telegram, Oct. 25).
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