When inmate Robert Wooley completed a 48-week regimen of pegylated interferon and ribavirin to treat his hepatitis C, his doctors recommended that he continue with a "low-dose maintenance pegylated interferon."
The Department of Corrections' Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lester Wright, rebuffed those recommendations, because the use of pegylated interferon was still "experimental" and hadn't been FDA approved.
In response, Wooley filed a grievance claiming that the decision to deny him the medication lacked a rational basis and was "cruel and unusual punishment," violative of the U.S. Constitution.
When that argument got slammed, Wooley filed an administrative appeal with the Albany County Supreme Court. And after that court, and the Appellate Division, Third Department, thought his case couldn't survive, Wooley went to the Court of Appeals.
Because there was a rational basis to deny him the treatment--since it hadn't been governmentally approved nor proven effective by way of long-term studies--our state's highest court thought Wooley's case had to die right there.
Was there no getting another shot?
To view a copy of the Court of Appeals's decision, please use this link: Matter of Wooley v. New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs.