Subject: Appeals Court Affirms Kevorkian's Murder Conviction
Source: Associated Press; November 21, 2001

Appeals Court Affirms Kevorkian's Murder Conviction

Lansing, MI -- A Michigan appeals court has upheld the murder conviction
of Jack Kevorkian in the death of a 52-year-old man whose suicide was
televised on ``60 Minutes.''

In the decision, handed down Tuesday and announced Wednesday, the Michigan
Court of Appeals rejected Kevorkian's argument that euthanasia is legal
and that his conviction was unconstitutional. Kevorkian attorney Mayer
Morganroth said he will appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court and the
federal courts if necessary.

``Euthanasia is at the core of this case,'' the judges wrote.``But for
defendant's self-described zealotry, Thomas Youk's death would, in all
probability, not have been the subject of national attention, much less a
murder trial. Defendant, in what is now apparently something of
anafterthought, asks us to conclude that euthanasia is legal and,
therefore, to reverse his conviction on constitutional grounds. We refuse.
Such a holding would be the first step down a very steep and slippery
slope.''

The court also tossed out Kevorkian's argument that euthanasia involves a
dying person's "right to privacy."

``We can find no meaningful precedent for expanding the right toprivacy to
include the right to commit euthanasia so that anindividual can be free
from intolerable and irremediablesuffering,'' it wrote. The ruling was
handed down by Court of Appeals Judges William Whitbeck, Joel Hoekstra and
Henry William Saad.

Kevorkian, who says he has assisted in more than 130 suicides, is serving
a 10- to 25-year sentence in the 1998 death of Thomas Youk, who was
terminally ill with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Kevorkian had videotaped himself injecting Youk with a lethal dose of
potassium chloride and gave the tape to ``60 Minutes.'' It was televised
two months later, and prosecutors quickly filed a murder charge.

Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999. Acting as his own
attorney for most of the trial, he said his actions were ``a medical
service for an agonized human being.''

``The trial that he had was not a fair trial,'' Morganroth said then. ``I
don't think (his conviction) would have occurred had hehad effective
counsel.''

However, Oakland County assistant prosecutor Anica Letica argued atthe
time that Kevorkian ``knew exactly what he was doing'' when herepresented
himself with attorney David Gorosh advising him.

Kevorkian had told ``60 Minutes'' he hoped to push prosecutors to act.
``They must charge me. Because if they do not, that means they don't think
it was a crime,'' he said. ``They don't need any more evidence, do they_''