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On 13 April l999 retired pathologist Dr.Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Michigan, USA, to two terms of imprisonment for helping a man suffering from A L S to die. For the 2nd degree murder of Thomas Youk he received a sentence of 10-25 years and for using a \'controlled substance\' (lethal drug) he was given 3-7 years jail, the sentences to run concurrently.
A month earlier a jury had convicted him on both counts. The 70-year-old doctor, who is currently (April 20) in prison, has said he will appeal to higher courts. The case achieved enormous notoriety, not only for Dr.Kevorkian\'s publicly acknowledging that he had already helped at least 130 other people to die by assisted suicide, but Mr.Youk\'s death in September l998 was by direct injection (voluntary euthanasia). When the law enforcement authorities in Michigan did not move to charge Kevorkian with killing Mr.Youk, he took a tape of the incident to CBS Television, which aired it in the widely watched news program \'60 Minutes\'.
On the program Kevorkian challenged prosecutors to act: three days later
Kevorkian was charged with the offences.
The legal case against Kevorkian was, of course, watertight because his video
clearly demonstrated the process of injection. There was no question but that he was guilty in the eyes of the law. The law does not accept that a person can ask to be killed - as Tom Youk clearly did. It is still \'murder\' legally. So, in an attempt to persuade the jury that his action had not been \'murder\' but a justifiable act of mercy, Kevorkian defended himself. He sought \'jury nullification\' on the grounds of humanity--- something a lawyer may not do.
Kevorkian was further hampered by the judge\'s ruling that he could not call the wife and brother of Tom Youk to confirm Tom\'s suffering and that the lethal injection was agreed by all three. (This aspect of the trial is likely to be one of the grounds for appeal.)
On three previous occasions when charged with \'assisted suicide\' the juries
refused to convict Kevorkian against the weight of evidence. But that did not
happen this time. Soon after he started publicly helping people to die in l990, Kevorkian was stripped of his licenses to practice medicine in both Michigan and California.
Currently (end April 99) Kevorkian is in custody as Prisoner # 28479( Oaks Correctional Facility)
Although it has had some reservations about a few cases in which Dr.Kevorkian has aided in a suicide, the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization (ERGO!) has fundamentally supported Kevorkian. The Hemlock Society USA has also given broad support to him.
Derek Humphry, ERGO! president, who founded the Hemlock Society in l980, said about the conviction:
\"The severity of the sentence on Kevorkian will drive the practice of
voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide even further underground. It will not stop it. Kevorkian is by no means the only doctor who helps people die-just the one who does so and also openly campaigns for societal acceptance of the practice.
\"Kevorkian\'s martyrdom - self-imposed as it is -- will speed up the day when
voluntary euthanasia for the dying is removed from the legal classification
of \'murder\' and recognized as a justifiable act of compassion.\"
Read a list of the first 120 people whom Dr.Kevorkian helped to die.
Source: Web page of the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization
\"My lone voice cannot accomplish much.
But in having written this book and taken action through the practice of
medicide as the first step in the right direction, I have done all that I can on
behalf of a just cause for our species.\"
Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Prescription: Medicide , (1991)
CASE HISTORIES:
1990
For more detailed case-history information, see Kevorkian\'s Patients based on official autopsy reports and death certificates.
June 4 Janet Adkins, 54, of Portland, Ore., uses a suicide machine developed by Kevorkian; Alzheimer\'s patient presses a button that injects lethal drugs into her body.
Dec. 13 Murder charge dropped when a state judge rules Michigan has no law against assisted suicide.
1991 Oct. 23 Kevorkian attends deaths of Sherry Miller, 43, of Roseville, Mich., and Marjorie Wantz, 58, of Sodus, Mich. Miller inhales carbon monoxide. Wantz uses a machine similar to one used by Adkins.
Nov. 20 Kevorkian\'s Michigan medical license suspended.1992
Feb. 28 Kevorkian ordered to stand trial on murder charges in Miller and Wantz cases.
July 21 State judge dismisses those murder charges; also notes Michigan has no law against assisted suicide.
Dec. 15 Michigan Gov. John Engler signs temporary ban on assisted suicide.
1993
Feb. 25 Assisted-suicide law takes effect.
April 27 Kevorkian\'s California medical license suspended.
Aug. 4 Thomas Hyde, 30, of Novi, Mich., inhales carbon monoxide, becomes 17th person to die in Kevorkian\'s presence.
Sept. 9 Judge orders Kevorkian to stand trial in Hyde\'s death; Kevorkian
released on bond. That night, Donald O\'Keefe, 73, of Redford Township, Mich., inhales carbon monoxide. Sept. 14 Kevorkian charged with assisting in O\'Keefe\'s death. Judge releases Kevorkian on bond on condition he not assist in any suicides.
Oct. 22 Merian Frederick, 72, of Ann Arbor, Mich., inhales carbon monoxide at Kevorkian\'s apartment.
Nov. 5 Judge increases Kevorkian\'s bail; Kevorkian refuses to post bond and is jailed. He goes on hunger strike.
Nov. 8 A lawyer posts Kevorkian\'s bond, complaining he is mocking the criminal justice system.
Nov. 22 Dr. Ali Khalili, 61, of Oak Brook, Ill., inhales carbon monoxide in Kevorkian apartment.
Nov. 29 Kevorkian charged in Frederick\'s death, jailed the next day after refusing to post bond and stages another hunger strike.
Dec. 14 Kevorkian ordered to stand trial in Frederick\'s death; charges dismissed
in O\'Keefe\'s death as another judge rules assisted suicide law unconstitutional.
Dec. 17 Kevorkian released from jail after supporter posts bond.
1994 Jan. 4 Kevorkian charged in Khalili\'s death.
Jan. 27 Circuit Judge Jessica Cooper dismisses assisted suicide charges against Kevorkian in the Frederick and Khalili cases.
May 2 Kevorkian acquitted in Hyde case.
May 10 Michigan Court of Appeals orders murder charges reinstated in Wantz and Miller cases. Court also says assisted suicide law invalid on technical grounds.
Dec. 13 Michigan Supreme Court rules assisted suicide law is constitutional.
1995 April 24 U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear appeals of Michigan Supreme Court ruling.
Aug. 31 In light of state Supreme Court ruling, Cooper sets trial date in Frederick and Khalili cases.
1996 Jan. 29 Linda Henslee, 48, of Beloit, Wis., dies of carbon monoxide poisoning, becoming 27th person to die in Kevorkian\'s presence.
Feb. 9 Kevorkian files $10 million defamation lawsuit against American Medical Association and Michigan State Medical Society.
Feb. 20 Trial begins in Frederick and Khalili cases in Oakland County Circuit Court before Judge Jessica Cooper.
March 8 Jury acquits Kevorkian in deaths of Frederick and Khalili.
April 16 Testimony begins in Kevorkian\'s trial in Oakland County on common-law assisted suicide charges in the deaths of Miller and Wantz.
May 6 Canadian right-to-die activist Austin Bastable, 53, suburban Windsor,
Ontario, dies of carbon monoxide poisoning, becoming the 28th person to die in Kevorkian\'s presence.
May 14 Jury acquits Kevorkian in deaths of Miller and Wantz.
June 11 Kevorkian attorney confirms death of Ruth Neuman, 69, of Columbus, N.J., the 29th person to die in Kevorkian\'s presence.
June 18 Dr. Jack Kevorkian was present at the death of Lona Jones. a 58-year-old
Virginia woman with a malignant brain tumor
Her death was the 30th Kevorkian has acknowledged attending since 1990.
June 21, 1996: Dr. Jack Kevorkian attended the suicide of an Ohio woman, Bette Lou Hamilton, 67, his lawyer said. It was his 31st such death. Fieger said Hamilton had a progressive neurological wasting disease called syringomyelia.
July 4 - Kevorkian attorney confirms death of Shirley Kline, 63, of Oceanside,
Calif., the 32nd person to die in Kevorkian\'s presence.
July 10 - Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped a 39-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis commit suicide, then took the body of Rebecca Badger of Goleta, Calif.,to a hospital himself, confident that the ``era of harassment and persecution is over\'\' for him.
August 7, 1996 - The Oakland County medical examiner Wednesday ruled an Ohio woman\'s death -- attended Tuesday by Jack Kevorkian -- was a homicide. Elizabeth
Mercz , 59, of Cincinnati, died from \"poisoning by intravenous injection,\" said Dr. L.J. Dragovic. The autopsy confirmed Mercz had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative nerve disease. Her body was dropped off Tuesday night at Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital.
August 15, 1996: - A Massachusetts woman, Judith Curren, 42, said to be suffering from chronic fatigue and immunodeficiency syndrome, died in Dr. Kevorkian\'s presence tonight.
August 21, 1996: - Louise Siebens, 76, of McKinney, Texas, said to be suffering from ALS, died in Dr. Kevorkian\'s presence this evening.
August 22, 1996 - Patricia Smith, a 40-year-old nurse from Lee\'s Summit, who suffered from rapidly progressing multiple sclerosis, died in Dr. Kevorkian\'s presence today. Her husband, and her father, were also present. August 23, 1996 - Pat DiGangi , 66, of New York, a former history teacher at
Brooklyn College, said to be suffering from multiple sclerosis died in the presence of Dr. Kevorkian a few hours after Mrs. Smith.
September 2, 1996 - Jack Leatherman, a 73-year-old father of three from Knoxville, Tenn., who suffered from pancreatic cancer, died in Dr. Kevorkian\'s presence this evening.
September 7, 1996 - Isabel Correa, 60, of Fresno, Calif., who suffered from a
spinal cord disorder.
September 29, 1996 - Richard Faw , 71, a North Carolina psychiatrist with colon cancer died with help from Dr. Kevorkian who drove up to an emergency room at William Beaumont Hospital at about 6 p.m. and told the doctor on duty that the man had had no vital signs for 45 minutes.
October 10, 1996: Wallace Joseph Spolar of El Paso who suffered from multiple sclerosis was helped to die by Dr. Kevorkian.
October 17, 1996: Nancy DeSoto, 55, of Bourbonnais, Illinois who suffered from ALS, was assisted by Dr. Kevorkian, who later took her body to William Beaumont Hospital.
October 24, 1996: The body of Barbara A. Collins , 65. of Falmouth, Mass., who suffered from ovarian cancer, was brought to William Beaumont Hospital by Dr. Kevorkian.
February 2, 1997: The body of Lisa Lansing , 42, from Florham Park, N.J. was brought to Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital.
February 2, 1997: The body of Elaine Day , 72, from Newhall, California, was
found in the back of Kevorkian\'s van parked near the Oakland Country coroner\'s office.
Various apparent assisted-suicides have been reported in during 1997 but none officially attributed to Dr. Kevorkian.
Sept. 17, 1998 Kevorkian videotapes the injection death of Thomas Youk, shown two months later on CBS\' \"60 Minutes.\"
Nov. 25, 1998 Kevorkian charged with murder, assisted suicide and delivery of a controlled substance in Youk\'s death. Assisted suicide charge later dropped.
March 26, 1999 Kevorkian convicted of second-degree murder and delivery of a controlled substance.
April 13, 1999 Kevorkian sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison.
For more detailed case-history information, see Kevorkian\'s Patients based on official autopsy reports and death certificates. Also see descriptions and photos of Kevorkian\'s patients by the Detroit Free Press
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