Unlike his farmer patients, who spent their entire lives in one place, family practitioner L. Stan Naramore was rootless, changing jobs nearly every year before ending up in tiny, conservative St. Francis, Kansas.

That apparent lack of stability made some folks wary of him. Naramore's fondness for playing the ponies and his frequent run-ins with hospital administrators also did little to engender the community's faith in him. So when two of Naramore's patients died, the town of St. Francis held a trial.

On 26 Jan, 1996, amid whispered rumors of drug addiction, pornography, and drunkenness, a jury in St. Francis convicted Stan Naramore of the attempted murder of a 78-year-old terminally ill woman and the premeditated second-degree murder of an 81-year-old farmer.

After the verdict was read, Naramore, then 50, was led away to the cries of his 10-year-old daughter. His lawyer, Kurt Kerns, stared at the courtroom wall for five hours without moving. Then the self-described "tough Irish" criminal lawyer "bawled like a baby" and threw up. Naramore's conviction left Kerns disconsolate and he even debated whether or not to turn his back on the law.

He chose not to and instead argued Naramore's case in front of The Kansas Court of Appeal nearly three years later. In a highly unusual move, the court acquitted Naramore outright, saying "no rational jury could find criminal intent and guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based on the record here."

After two-and-a-half years behind bars, Naramore was a free man. But the ordeal left him bankrupt, without his license to practice, and unemployed.