U.S. attorney seeks rehearing on overturned conviction

Tuesday, May 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Muskogee-AP) -- An appeals court is being asked for a rehearing on its decision overturning the involuntary manslaughter conviction of a Muskogee Veterans Administration physician.

The U-S Attorney's Office in Muskogee made the request of the Tenth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Doctor C. Douglas Wood.

A jury convicted Wood in 1998 of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that he was grossly negligent in treating 86-year-oldVirgil Dykes. Dykes died within minutes after Wood injected him with a drug the doctor said he thought was necessary to save the man.

Wood was sentenced to five months in prison and was fined $25,000. A three-judge panel of the court in Denver overturned the conviction in March. The panel said the injection may have been an unintentional overdose. The court said Wood could be retried on the same charge.