Wichita ? Prosecutors plan to portray a Kansas doctor at his trial as “the candy man” who illegally provided painkillers to drug-addicted patients to boost his bottom line. Meanwhile, defense attorneys claim he’s a compassionate health care provider who gave high doses to chronic pain sufferers because that’s what they need.

Jury selection started Monday for what could be a two-month trial for Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife and nurse, Linda Schneider. The couple are charged with illegally prescribing drugs linked to dozens of deaths, but they’ve found champions in a national patient advocacy group that claims federal prosecutions have made doctors so reluctant to prescribe drugs that patients suffer needlessly.

The Schneiders are charged with conspiring to illegally dispense prescription drugs, defrauding health insurance programs and patients, and money laundering. They face four counts of illegally prescribing drugs that contributed to 21 deaths, but court documents tie them to 47 other deaths as well.

In a sweeping indictment, the government claims the 56-year-old doctor peddled drugs to make money, sometimes giving prescriptions to patients who had already overdosed on the same medications. The indictment describes his clinic as a “pill mill” that was open 11 hours a day every day and scheduled patients 10 minutes apart.