Dr. Jack Kevorkian was found not guilty Monday of assisting the suicide of a 30-year-old man in the first trial under a Michigan law passed specifically to stop him.
The retired pathologist was accused of helping Thomas Hyde die by inhaling carbon monoxide Aug. 4. Kevorkian said he supplied the poison, tubing and mask and placed the mask on Hyde's face, but only in an effort to ease his suffering, not necessarily cause death.Hyde, the 17th of 20 people who have died in Kevorkian's presence since 1990, suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative nerve disorder that left him barely able to walk, talk or feed himself.
Kevorkian showed little emotion as he was pronounced not guilty, smiling after a few seconds. He said afterward the verdict may encourage some doctors who have secretly supported his crusade to come forward.
"I know there are doctors who want to come forward," he said. "I want this intimidation by medical politicians to stop."
The Detroit Recorder's Court jury deliberated a little more than eight hours over three days before finding Kevorkian not guilty. A few jurors agreed to discuss their decision and made clear it was based on no single legal issue.
The law enacted in an effort to stop Kevorkian carries a penalty of four years in prison and a $2,000 fine. The Michigan Court of Appeals is considering several challenges to the law.
"This drives a stake into its heart," defense attorney Geoffrey Fieger said after the verdict. "This is the first chance for the people to decide. It wasn't Dr. Kevorkian on trial here. It was everyone's rights on trial here."
But until closing arguments Thursday, Fieger focused more on technicalities than on the moral argument for doctor-assisted suicide he had previously stressed.
He unleashed a surprise defense in opening statements by claiming for the first time that Hyde had actually died in Oakland County and therefore that the Wayne County jury had no jurisdiction. Kevorkian surrendered with Hyde's body in Wayne County, and Kevorkian and Fieger had led authorities to believe that is where the death occurred.
Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley ordered that the trial take place in Detroit, regardless of where Hyde died. Judge Thomas E. Jackson instructed jurors that they must be convinced that Hyde died in Wayne County if they were to convict Kevorkian.
Fieger also argued that in Hyde's death, Kevorkian was acting under a loophole in the state law that allows doctors to prescribe medication to ease suffering, even if the medication hastens death.
He used his closing argument to try to charge jurors' emotions.
"Isn't it a strange country that at the point when death is sure, that we as people become criminals when we want to end our suffering?" Fieger said. "Have we lost all sanity?"
One juror cried last week as Hyde's fiancee, Heidi Fernandez, described watching his health decline to the point at which he was in a wheelchair, barely able to speak and unable to feed himself.