HEALTH

Sleeping Pill Shares Blame in Murder: A Dallas jury recommended that the family of a convicted murderer receive up to $2.15 million after deciding that the sleeping pill Halcion helped the man kill. It was the nation’s first civil trial over the alleged side effects of Halcion. Similar cases against Upjohn Co., the drug’s maker, are pending across the country. The lawsuit was filed by William Freeman, former Assistant Police Chief of Ft. Stockton, Tex., and his family. They said Halcion altered Freeman’s personality and caused him to kill his friend, Donnie Hazelwood, in 1987. Freeman is serving a life prison term for the murder.