The Military: Clearing a Navy Doctor

The prisoner was a victim of a "smear campaign" and trial tactics "that never should have been permitted." With those strong words, a Navy appeals court last week overturned the conviction of Commander Donal Billig, Bethesda Naval Hospital's chief heart surgeon, who was court-martialed in 1986 on charges of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide.

In a controversial case that prompted congressional investigations into the quality of military heath care, Billig had been sentenced to four years in prison for "wrongfully" performing coronary-bypass surgery on three patients who later died. Prosecutors, the appeals court said, had unfairly portrayed the experienced doctor as a "bungling, one-eyed surgeon who should have known better than even to enter an operating room because of his past mistakes." The appeals court found that the Navy had not clearly established that incompetence or dereliction of duty caused the deaths. Moreover, Billig was not the primary surgeon during any of the procedures.