Man’s TV Tale of Aiding Suicide Being Probed

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the actions of a Los Angeles AIDS counselor who appeared last month on the ABC television program “Nightline” and said he helped a terminally ill AIDS patient commit suicide.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office, acting on a complaint from a right-to-life group, began looking into the legal ramifications of the case this week, but concluded Tuesday that the death did not occur in that city.

“It appears it may be their problem down there (in Los Angeles), which is fine with me,” said San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith.

Identifies Man

The counselor, Marty James, told The Times on Tuesday that the incident he described on the Nightline broadcast occurred in West Hollywood last Nov. 18. James identified the man who died as Keith Lower, 28, who was suffering from AIDS-related complex, an often-fatal condition similar to AIDS.

During the March 31 broadcast, James acknowledged assisting Lower--whom he referred to at the time only as “Keith”--in mixing 30 barbiturate capsules into a glass of grape juice. James said he was acting at Lower’s request.

“He had lived a very good life and he wanted a very good death,” James told ABC. He added: “There were no convulsions, no discomfort that I could see. It was quiet. It was peaceful.”

James also told ABC that he was “completely aware of the fact that in California, it’s a felony and that I could serve up to five years in the state penitentiary.”

“It’s case by case,” James said at another point in the broadcast. “My friend, Keith, who I assisted to take his own life, was in such a debilitated condition, he was manifesting malignant tumors in his lungs, he had suffered AIDS-related complex for seven to eight years.”

On Tuesday, James confirmed the story he told about Lower on “Nightline” and recalled their last day together at his apartment.

“We spoke often in those 19 hours,” James said. “It’s better this way. He didn’t want to be a burden to his family and he had no health insurance. It was a very clear choice on his part.”

As for his role, James said, “I’m real clear about the possible legal repercussions.” He said that after Lower’s death he was questioned by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide investigator, a sheriff’s deputy and a coroner’s investigator.

But Capt. Bob Grimm of the sheriff’s homicide squad said James did not tell investigators about the role he now says he had in hastening Lower’s death.

“He made no representation of those facts to us,” Grimm said. “If he helped the victim commit suicide we would be very interested in talking to him.”

A county coroner’s report and death certificate obtained by The Times did not contain any suggestion that James helped Lower commit suicide. The report describes Lower’s death as an “apparent suicide” and attributes it to “acute barbiturate and diphenhydramine intoxication.” Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine.

According to a written report by Michael Joseph, the coroner’s investigator, James gave authorities this account:

Lower came to his apartment “during the evening hours” on Nov. 17. The two men “spent the night and early morning talking about the decedent (Lower) and his disease.” At 3 a.m., Lower went to sleep on a bed in the living room, and James bedded down in another room. James awoke at 1 p.m. and checked Lower, only to find him asleep. When he checked again, he found Lower to be “unresponsive.”

Mentioned ‘Suicide’

The investigator’s report said the Sheriff’s Department was summoned and an arriving deputy confirmed at 2:15 p.m. that Lower had died. Authorities recovered a note and a “glass containing a clear liquid from the table” next to Lower’s body. An accompanying case report mentioned “recent talk of suicide,” but gave no details. James, who describes himself as an AIDS counselor, worked from 1984 to late 1985 with the Shanti Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping AIDS patients. He also worked briefly with AIDS Project Los Angeles.

In the “Nightline” interview, a transcript of which was given to The Times by ABC-TV, James spoke in support of legalized euthanasia, and told of seeing AIDS patients in “excruciating pain” that medication could not relieve. He said that he, too, has AIDS-related complex and hopes someone will help him commit suicide if the disease progresses to a “terminal situation.”

In the “Nightline” interview, Dr. Timothy Johnson, ABC News medical editor, said: “Mr. James, just as a matter of clarification, for the record, you have openly acknowledged your being involved in some cases of assisted suicide. Are you in any current legal jeopardy because of that?”

“I don’t know, actually,” James replied. “There could be some possible repercussions. But because of the strong feelings I have surrounding this issue, I felt it was important to come forward.”

After the broadcast, officials of Americans United for Life, a Chicago-based anti-abortion group, acting on an incorrect assumption that the death occurred in San Francisco, wrote to San Francisco Dist. Atty. Smith, urging him to investigate the case.

San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Boyd Stephens also appeared on the “Nightline” broadcast. “We could only assume that in the context of the program that it occurred in San Francisco,” said Laurie Ramsey, a spokeswoman for the anti-abortion group.

However, San Francisco investigators concluded this week that the death did not occur in their jurisdiction. Stephens said he checked through his files and found no death matching the one described by James. At the time of the broadcast, he said, he believed James was talking about a case that occurred in the Los Angeles area.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m sure glad that’s in L.A. and not here.’ If I had seen anything to suggest it was in San Francisco, I would have done something,” Stephens told The Times on Tuesday.

Stephens said he has investigated other cases in which physicians and friends were said to have helped AIDS victims kill themselves, but he has yet to substantiate any such case.

‘A Tough Question’

Stephens said, “We have to operate under existing law,” which makes it a crime to help someone commit suicide. But he also noted that the question is especially charged now with a petition circulating to qualify an initiative in California that would make euthanasia legal.

“It’s a tough question,” Stephens said.

Derek Humphry, a friend of James and founder of the Hemlock Society, a group that supports legalized euthanasia, pledged that if James is charged with a crime, his group will “provide Marty with a top class lawyer and pay for it.

“In our view, he acted honorably and compassionately. If he possibly broke a law, it was a moral right to do so. . . . If the other side wants to make a fight of it, then the Hemlock Society will defend Mr. James,” Humphry said.

Humphry said James is not alone. He said every month “hundreds” of AIDS sufferers are “helped to die by their lovers.”

“Marty James is just the barest tip of the iceberg,” Humphry said.