S0Noma
12-13-2006, 10:12 PM
Dec. 13, 2006. 09:06 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LANSING, Mich. — Assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian can look forward to leaving prison on June 1, but only after promising he'll never advise or counsel anyone again about the procedure, state officials said Wednesday.
The 78-year-old retired pathologist will have served just more than eight years when he leaves the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, about 100 miles west-southwest of Detroit. He plans to return to the Detroit area and says he will live on a small pension and his Social Security payments.
His attorney, Mayer Morganroth, said he will ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Thursday for an earlier release date because of Kevorkian's health problems, which include diabetes, hepatitis C, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries in his brain and vertigo, which causes Kevorkian to lose his balance.
He recently fell and cracked two ribs while being transported to a prison hospital in ankle chains, the attorney said.
"I would hope that the governor, now knowing that he's going to be released, will expedite it and release him very quickly,'' Morganroth said.
Granholm this summer ordered corrections authorities to carry out an independent medical evaluation of Kevorkian, but has declined to commute Kevorkian's sentence or grant him a pardon.
Once the nation's most vocal advocate of assisted suicide, Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52 — an Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Michigan banned assisted suicide in 1998.
Youk's death was videotaped and shown on CBS' 60 Minutes.
Kevorkian, who claimed to have assisted in at least 130 deaths in the 1990s, called it a mercy killing. During a pre-parole interview Thursday with parole board Chairman John Rubitschun, however, he acknowledged that what he did was wrong.
"He did acknowledge that he broke the law. He said, `Legally it was wrong. It was an infraction of the law. I had to do it that way — or so I thought,'" said state prisons spokesman Russ Marlan, who sat in on the interview and took extensive notes.
Now that Oregon has a law on the books allowing assisted suicide in certain cases, Kevorkian said he sees that he should have worked on a legislative solution, rather than trying to go through the courts.
"I assumed it was a constitutional issue of choice," Kevorkian said during the interview, according to Marlan. "I learned the best way to approach this issue is at the legislative level.''
Marlan said Kevorkian has been eligible all along to be paroled on June 1, 2007. He was able to earn about a year and nine months' time off for good behaviour, something prisoners whose crimes occurred after December 1998 can't do.
Once that time off was added to the eight years and two-and-a-half months he's been in prison, Kevorkian was eligible for parole because he'd served his minimum sentence of 10 years. The parole board determined he was safe for release and wouldn't be a menace to society, Marlan said.
"His health does play a part, as with all prisoners," Marlan added. "But his health is just one of many, many factors.''
Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, whose office won the conviction that sent Kevorkian to prison, said he didn't object to the decision to parole him.
"He has served his minimum term, and I did not object to his release," Gorcyca said. "I'm certainly not particularly surprised, just due to his alleged health concerns.''
Kevorkian has applied four times for early release, most recently because he said his health was declining. But the state parole board each time had recommended against doing so.
As he did in previous hearings, Kevorkian again said he would not assist in any suicides if released.
"I think they believed him — that he would never do it again. I think they understand he is not well, that he should be treated at a proper facility outside prison," Morganroth said.
Kevorkian told Rubitschun that he plans to do some writing and maybe make some speeches, although he said he doesn't expect them all to be on euthanasia or assisted suicide. Kevorkian also is a painter and likes to play music and anticipates being asked to speak on those topics.
Asked about Kevorkian's health, Marlan replied that Kevorkian said he tried to walk a mile a day around the prison track each morning and afternoon.
"He looked as healthy as a 78-year-old man can be," Marlan added. "He wasn't hobbling or frail. ... He seemed very sharp, and offered up some humour at times and was very witty and intelligent.''
Morganroth insisted that Kevorkian is in very poor health.
"There isn't a chance in the world that he walks a mile a day. Impossible," he said.
When Kevorkian is released on June 1, he will have spent close to 3,000 days in prison since being sentenced in April 1999. He will be on probation for two years, during which time he can't leave the state or change his residence without written permission from state officials.
Among the conditions of his parole is an understanding that he won't be able to be present at any assisted suicide or in any way participate in such activities, including providing operational or implementation information or offering any person advice or counselling in the matter of assisted suicide or euthanasia, Marlan said.
However, he still will be able to talk to audiences about assisted suicide, as long as he doesn't individually counsel anyone.
Marlan said Kevorkian is eager to leave prison.
During his interview, according to Marlan, Kevorkian told Rubitschun, "You can put any conditions you want on me, regarding the circumstances of my crime. I'm not going to do it again.''
He added, "Anything that will bring me back to prison I will avoid. Prison is no place to live.''
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LANSING, Mich. — Assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian can look forward to leaving prison on June 1, but only after promising he'll never advise or counsel anyone again about the procedure, state officials said Wednesday.
The 78-year-old retired pathologist will have served just more than eight years when he leaves the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, about 100 miles west-southwest of Detroit. He plans to return to the Detroit area and says he will live on a small pension and his Social Security payments.
His attorney, Mayer Morganroth, said he will ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Thursday for an earlier release date because of Kevorkian's health problems, which include diabetes, hepatitis C, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries in his brain and vertigo, which causes Kevorkian to lose his balance.
He recently fell and cracked two ribs while being transported to a prison hospital in ankle chains, the attorney said.
"I would hope that the governor, now knowing that he's going to be released, will expedite it and release him very quickly,'' Morganroth said.
Granholm this summer ordered corrections authorities to carry out an independent medical evaluation of Kevorkian, but has declined to commute Kevorkian's sentence or grant him a pardon.
Once the nation's most vocal advocate of assisted suicide, Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52 — an Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Michigan banned assisted suicide in 1998.
Youk's death was videotaped and shown on CBS' 60 Minutes.
Kevorkian, who claimed to have assisted in at least 130 deaths in the 1990s, called it a mercy killing. During a pre-parole interview Thursday with parole board Chairman John Rubitschun, however, he acknowledged that what he did was wrong.
"He did acknowledge that he broke the law. He said, `Legally it was wrong. It was an infraction of the law. I had to do it that way — or so I thought,'" said state prisons spokesman Russ Marlan, who sat in on the interview and took extensive notes.
Now that Oregon has a law on the books allowing assisted suicide in certain cases, Kevorkian said he sees that he should have worked on a legislative solution, rather than trying to go through the courts.
"I assumed it was a constitutional issue of choice," Kevorkian said during the interview, according to Marlan. "I learned the best way to approach this issue is at the legislative level.''
Marlan said Kevorkian has been eligible all along to be paroled on June 1, 2007. He was able to earn about a year and nine months' time off for good behaviour, something prisoners whose crimes occurred after December 1998 can't do.
Once that time off was added to the eight years and two-and-a-half months he's been in prison, Kevorkian was eligible for parole because he'd served his minimum sentence of 10 years. The parole board determined he was safe for release and wouldn't be a menace to society, Marlan said.
"His health does play a part, as with all prisoners," Marlan added. "But his health is just one of many, many factors.''
Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, whose office won the conviction that sent Kevorkian to prison, said he didn't object to the decision to parole him.
"He has served his minimum term, and I did not object to his release," Gorcyca said. "I'm certainly not particularly surprised, just due to his alleged health concerns.''
Kevorkian has applied four times for early release, most recently because he said his health was declining. But the state parole board each time had recommended against doing so.
As he did in previous hearings, Kevorkian again said he would not assist in any suicides if released.
"I think they believed him — that he would never do it again. I think they understand he is not well, that he should be treated at a proper facility outside prison," Morganroth said.
Kevorkian told Rubitschun that he plans to do some writing and maybe make some speeches, although he said he doesn't expect them all to be on euthanasia or assisted suicide. Kevorkian also is a painter and likes to play music and anticipates being asked to speak on those topics.
Asked about Kevorkian's health, Marlan replied that Kevorkian said he tried to walk a mile a day around the prison track each morning and afternoon.
"He looked as healthy as a 78-year-old man can be," Marlan added. "He wasn't hobbling or frail. ... He seemed very sharp, and offered up some humour at times and was very witty and intelligent.''
Morganroth insisted that Kevorkian is in very poor health.
"There isn't a chance in the world that he walks a mile a day. Impossible," he said.
When Kevorkian is released on June 1, he will have spent close to 3,000 days in prison since being sentenced in April 1999. He will be on probation for two years, during which time he can't leave the state or change his residence without written permission from state officials.
Among the conditions of his parole is an understanding that he won't be able to be present at any assisted suicide or in any way participate in such activities, including providing operational or implementation information or offering any person advice or counselling in the matter of assisted suicide or euthanasia, Marlan said.
However, he still will be able to talk to audiences about assisted suicide, as long as he doesn't individually counsel anyone.
Marlan said Kevorkian is eager to leave prison.
During his interview, according to Marlan, Kevorkian told Rubitschun, "You can put any conditions you want on me, regarding the circumstances of my crime. I'm not going to do it again.''
He added, "Anything that will bring me back to prison I will avoid. Prison is no place to live.''