Under the Microscope/Prof William Reville: "Your Honour, I humbly ask that you sentence me to community service and no prison time. I don't want to go to prison. I can better serve society by working to help feed poor people. During my whole career I have worked to help people through my teaching, patient care and research at universities and in foreign countries helping people."
Thus did Dr Thomas Butler, renowned American microbiologist and physician, address the judge on March 10th, 2004. A jury had found him guilty of 47 out of 69 charges. The charges carried a potential sentence of hundreds of years in jail and millions of dollars in fines. Butler's case has shocked the scientific world.
Sixty-two-year-old Thomas Butler is a world-renowned expert on bubonic plague and carried out research on the bacterium that causes the disease at Texas Tech University (TTU). One day in January 2003 he noticed that 30 vials of the plague bacterium were missing. He informed the police, who called in the FBI.
Two years earlier, five people had died after receiving letters contaminated with anthrax. The FBI suspected that the letter-sender was a scientist working on biological weapons, but it never caught anyone. The Bureau was highly motivated not to fail again.
The FBI questioned Butler for two days, searched his house in the presence of his children and asked his wife if Butler had money problems that might cause him to sell plague bacteria to terrorists.
In microbiology labs worldwide, unwanted cultures of micro-organisms are sterilised every day. Useful material is often sterilised by mistake. This may well have been the fate of the 30 missing plague vials. Butler doesn't know what happened to them.
Butler cooperated fully with the investigation and even waived his right to a lawyer. He says the FBI told him he should sign a document declaring that the vials had been accidentally sterilised. He claims he was assured that this would satisfy the investigation, allay public fears, and enable him to go back to work. Butler signed, after which he was promptly arrested and charged with telling lies.
Butler claims he refused a deal to plead guilty in return for six months in jail. The prosecutors responded by throwing 69 charges at him. When his case came to trial in November 2003, most of the charges had nothing to do with the plague vials. He faced 44 charges brought by his employer, TTU, relating to fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion.
Butler got his plague samples from Tanzania. He was accused of taking the vials of plague back to the US in his pocket, and returning samples to Tanzania by FedEx parcel with the wrong information box ticked on the accompanying paperwork. Butler explained that it is safer for microbiologists to carry such material on their persons than to check it through in baggage. He also pointed out that the FedEx parcel arrived safely in Tanzania and nobody was harmed.
Many American professors do consultancy work for outside bodies in addition to their university work. Such professors are paid for only nine months of the year by their universities and earn the other three months' income elsewhere. Universities get a commission on consultancy fees - typically 50 per cent. TTU accused Butler of leaving the college short of $1 million in consultancy commissions over a number of years.
The jury acquitted Butler of all the plague- related charges except for three relating to transporting samples. They found him guilty on some of the TTU charges and acquitted him on others. Judge Cummings was impressed by Butler's life's work and lack of malicious intent in his handling of the plague vials. The US government sought 10 years' imprisonment, but the judge imposed two years. TTU sought $1 million ; the judge awarded $38,675.
Butler is an eminent scientist. In the 1970s he pioneered a technique of oral re-hydration that now saves the lives of millions of children every year in the developing world. He worked at TTU to evaluate the effectiveness of various antibiotics in treating victims of bio-terrorist plague weapons.
From everything I have read, Butler comes across as a decent, honest scientist. Perhaps he could have been more careful with the plague cultures, but things can go astray despite stringent precautions. He cooperated fully with the investigation but ended up with a ruined career, imprisonment and the loss of his certificate to practice medicine.
The US government pursued Butler with zeal, seemingly eager to make an example of him. Since 9/11, there is a great fear of bio- terrorism in the US. This is inevitable after such a terrible atrocity. However, care should be taken to choose more appropriate targets than eminent scientists who have devoted their lives to helping others.
Also, I can't understand why TTU so strenuously attacked one of its own staff under such circumstances. It seems to me that only minor common contractual disagreements existed between Butler and TTU. Such matters are routinely worked out by internal negotiation.
Butler didn't receive much support from his TTU academic colleagues during his travails. Academics will fight viciously amongst themselves at the drop of a hat but seemingly cannot be provoked into publicly criticising official outside bodies.
Butler is now in the process of appealing his conviction. The prestigious American National Academy of Sciences is supporting him, as are eminent individual scientists around the world.