Thomas C. Butler

Thomas Campbell Butler, M.D., is an American scientist specializing in infectious diseases including cholera and bubonic plague at Texas Tech University since 1987. He is credited with making oral hydration the standard treatment for diarrhea.

Butler was arrested in 2003 (Kimberly, 2003) and prosecuted aggressively by the United States Justice Department and served a two year jail term ending in December 2005.

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Early life and education

Dr. Butler received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in 1967 and served in the US Naval Medical Research Unit studying infectious disease, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

Arrest

In January of 2003, Dr. Butler reported 30 vials of plague missing from his laboratory to safety officers at Texas Tech University. The missing vials apparently triggered a bioterrorism response plan. Sixty law enforcement officers were sent to investigate, and they arrested Dr. Butler after questioning him. The Justice Department accused Butler of many improprieties including illegal transportation of plague samples, tax evasion, fraud, and embezzlement. Butler pleaded not guilty in September, turning down a plea-bargain offer for a six month sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.

Conviction

Butler was convicted on 1 December 2003 of 47 of the 69 charges filed against him. Of the convictions, three were for improper shipment of plague samples to collaborators in Tanzania and forty-four were related to what prosecutors called "shadow contracts" for his research at Texas Tech. (Chang, 2003)

Prosecution

The prosecution of Dr. Butler was met with disapproval by many groups of scientists, including colleagues, the National Academy of Sciences, several Nobel Prize winners, and the Federation of American Scientists. Critics of the prosecution of Butler cited that while Butler was charged with violations of bioterrorism laws, he was an eminent scientist who was not credibly suspected of connections to bioterrorism. Critics of the prosecution also suggested that the aggressive prosecution of a prominent scientist would make other scientists reluctant to carry out research in dangerous diseases for fear of similar prosecutions.