William Hurwitz, a well-known pain doctor, is on trial for the second time on charges that he overprescribed powerful painkillers like OxyContin, the Associated Press reported March 27.

Hurwitz, 61, was convicted on drug trafficking charges in 2004, but an appeals court threw out the verdict and 25-year prison term, saying the trial judge erred in barring the jury from considering whether Hurwitz acted in good faith in writing the prescriptions.

Prosecutors allege that Hurwitz knowingly prescribed drugs to people who were reselling the opiate-based painkillers on the black market. But Hurwitz said he was only acting in pain patients' best interest by prescribing high doses of the drugs.

Hurwitz's case has become a cause celebre for advocates of pain medication. However, he had been repeatedly warned about illegal diversion of the drugs by his patients, one of whom had a prescription for up to 1,600 pills a day.