PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -- Terry Youk wanted the trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian to center on the pain his brother suffered. Instead, he said, it focused on the definition of murder.
Youk said Sunday that Kevorkian's trial lost its focus because Circuit Judge Jessica Cooper refused to let him or Melody Youk, the widow of Thomas Youk, testify."We weren't able to give the jurors any kind of picture of who Tom was and what he was going through," Terry Youk told Time magazine.
Kevorkian was convicted Friday of second-degree murder and delivery of a controlled substance in Youk's death. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14.
Kevorkian had argued during his trial that Youk's widow, Melody, and Youk's brother should be allowed to testify that they wanted Kevorkian to end Youk's suffering.
But Cooper told Kevorkian, who was acting as his own lawyer, that he couldn't include such testimony because Michigan law doesn't recognize the consent of the victim as a defense to murder.
Terry Youk told Time that his brother suffered from "the kind of pain that medicine couldn't help." He said Thomas Youk told him that he didn't want to die, "but I don't want to live like this."
Melody Youk added: "He didn't want to become a prisoner in his own body."
Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor John Skrzynski said Kevorkian had himself to blame for the conviction, saying that if he had "not videotaped this, no one would have ever known it happened."
The Youks say they continue to support Kevorkian. "You have to put yourself in harm's way when you feel there's an unjust law," Terry Youk said.