Kevorkian’s Assisted-Suicide Trial Opens

DETROIT —  A jury is slated to decide for the first time whether Jack Kevorkian, famed as “Dr. Death,” has violated Michigan’s assisted-suicide ban, while the state continues to grapple with the issue of what to allow when the ill want to end their pain by ending their lives.

Since the Michigan Legislature made it illegal in February, 1993, to help another person commit suicide, Kevorkian has been charged four times with violations, and the total number of suicides at which he has been present has climbed to 20.

Kevorkian has been jailed twice, staging hunger strikes in protest both times.

Three lower-court judges, all for different reasons, declared the law unconstitutional, dismissing charges in the cases before them.

But in the fourth case, Detroit Recorder’s Court Judge Thomas E. Jackson ordered a trial. On Tuesday, in Jackson’s courtroom, selection began of a citizens’ panel to weigh Kevorkian’s role in the death of Thomas Hyde, a 30-year-old former construction worker who could barely swallow, speak or move because of the degenerative Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Whatever the outcome, it will not settle the status of physician-assisted suicide here. The Michigan Court of Appeals is still reviewing the ban, and even that long-awaited ruling could be appealed further to the state and U.S. Supreme Courts.

The ban itself is a temporary measure, expiring in November. An appointed commission is supposed to report recommendations for a permanent law to the Legislature next month.

Meanwhile, Kevorkian has launched a campaign to collect signatures for a separate statewide vote. Janet Good, president of the Hemlock Society of Michigan and a ballot drive coordinator, said 256,000 valid signatures must be submitted by July 1 to secure a place on the November ballot. She said 100,000 people have signed.

If Kevorkian is convicted of the charge against him now, he faces a four-year prison sentence and a $2,000 fine. If he ends up behind bars again, he said, he will not fast this time. “I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction,” he said.

“Janet!” Kevorkian called, beckoning to Good as prospective jurors in another room filled out a 12-page, 60-question survey of their beliefs regarding suicide, religion and politics. “If I’m sitting in jail, how does it affect the petition process?

“Now be honest,” he said, smiling, as his friend approached.

Good laughed, then answered quietly, “It’d help.”

By afternoon, Kevorkian was studying Japanese at the defense table, while the judge and lawyers asked jurors about their families’ health.

During a break, Kevorkian said, “This is a play, not a jury trial. This is the only judge in town who doesn’t know” the law is unconstitutional.

Hyde, of suburban Novi, was the first suicide announced by Kevorkian after the ban took effect.

After Hyde’s death Aug. 4, Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, held a news conference, as is his custom. He practically begged to be prosecuted. He even called reporters together a second time, after Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair said he had not provided enough detail to be charged.

Recorded on audiotape and by television cameras, Kevorkian explained that he had driven Hyde to an island park in the middle of the Detroit River. There, in the back of his rusty van, Kevorkian supplied carbon monoxide and secured a mask over Hyde’s face. The young man released a clamp, allowing the deadly gas to flow.

Defense attorney Geoffrey N. Fieger is hoping to introduce another tape--a video of a conversation between Kevorkian, Hyde and Hyde’s fiancee, Heidi Fernandez, a month before the suicide.

“I want to end this; I want to die,” says Hyde, thin and shaking in a bright orange T-shirt, on the tape. When Kevorkian asks, “Do you have any reservations?” Hyde answers: “Oh, no.”

“Tom is suffering so,” says Fernandez, a hand on Hyde’s shoulder. “He wants to be free--to be free of this body. His soul will be free.”

Prosecutor Timothy Kenny has objected to allowing the jury to see the tape. “Whether Thomas Hyde committed suicide for the most noble of reasons, or whether he did it for the most unwise of reasons, is really legally irrelevant,” Kenny said.

Jackson had not decided yet whether to allow the tape to be played in court.

The lengthy jury selection process showed how many people have been touched by the issue of assisted suicide and have strong feelings about it.

Jackson dismissed seven members of the 66-person pool who said they thought they could not judge Kevorkian fairly; all said they did not believe in suicide.

One man told of watching a terminally ill relative suffer. “I prayed for her to die,” he said, “but wouldn’t want anybody to help her die, only the man upstairs.”

Others, however, said they thought physician-assisted suicide should be legal. “I don’t believe anyone should suffer,” one said. Another volunteered that he often works with Good and the Hemlock Society.

As the court day ended, the jury still had no official members.