(Reuters) -An Ohio jury on Wednesday found Dr. William Husel, who had been accused of giving patients lethal doses of fentanyl, not guilty of 14 counts of murder, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported.
Husel was accused in Franklin County of purposefully killing 14 patients between 2015 and 2018 and faced 15 years in prison for each count, the newspaper reported.
Husel faces more than 10 civil lawsuits from the families of patients who died while under his care; while several families have settled suits worth millions of dollars, the Dispatch reported.
Husel was part of a wave of U.S. doctors charged for their role in a public health crisis that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said led to a record 47,600 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017.
Fentanyl, often given for intense pain associated with cancer, is 100 times more powerful than morphine.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
