New Sentencing for Arkansas Doctor Convicted in Bombing Case

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A federal appeals court has ordered a re-sentencing for an Arkansas doctor convicted in a bombing that nearly killed the head of the state medical board.

A jury in February 2011 of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the attack on Dr. Trent Pierce. His attorneys appealed his life sentence, arguing there wasn’t enough evidence to convict.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Mann’s conviction but said that Mann shouldn’t have received a sentencing enhancement based on allegations that he ordered the assault of an inmate. The panel said the allegation was never brought up in court and was improperly referenced in a pre-sentencing report.

The court also ordered that one of Mann’s two weapons convictions be tossed, finding they amounted to double jeopardy.

Mann, who ran a pain clinic in Russellville, had his license to prescribe narcotics suspended by the Arkansas State Medical Board after several of his patients suffered fatal overdoses. Jurors in the criminal case found him responsible for the 2009 bombing outside the home of Dr. Trent Pierce, the board chairman, who prosecutors said Mann targeted in retaliation for the board’s decision.

In April 2012 Mann lost a lawsuit in a wrongful death case and was ordered to pay $300,000 to family members of a former patient who died.

Mann was sued on behalf of the estate of Robin Dee Woodall. The lawsuit alleged that Mann prescribed Woodall at least 10 different medications before she died in 2003. An autopsy report showed she died of multiple drug intoxication, according to the lawsuit, which sought more than $75,000.

Attorneys for Woodall’s estate pointed to incidents in 2003 and 2006 when Mann was sanctioned by the medical board for violating the state’s medical practices law.

Mann was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of a weapon of mass destruction count and other charges. Investigators said they found nearly 100 grenades and a cache of machine guns at or near Mann’s home, though almost all of the firearms were legally registered.