MILTON, Fla., March 22 (UPI) -- Dr. James Graves, convicted of manslaughter earlier this month for prescribing fatal overdoses of OxyContin painkiller for four patients, has been sentenced to 62 years in prison.
Under state guidelines he won't be eligible for parole for 53 years.
Graves, 55, was the first physician in the nation to be convicted of manslaughter by OxyContin.
Prosecutor Russ Edgar asked Circuit Judge Kenneth Bell for a life sentence. Defense attorneys told Bell that 10 years would be a death sentence because Graves is overweight and suffers from high blood pressure.
The jury last month found that Graves was responsible for the deaths of four patients because of a combination of drugs including OxyContin he had recklessly prescribed.
Graves says he is innocent. He told the jury he was treating his patients' pain properly, although he conceded that he knew some of the patients were addicts.
