Two Assisted-Suicides Ruled Homicide : Law: Prosecutor in Michigan says his office will issue a statement about charges today. Dr. Jack Kevorkian says he expects murder counts.

A medical examiner issued a ruling of homicide Wednesday in the deaths of two women who were assisted by suicide-machine inventor Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Oakland County prosecutor Richard Thompson said his office would issue a statement regarding homicide charges today.

Kevorkian and his attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, told station WXYZ-TV that they expected murder charges to be filed.

The retired pathologist helped two women kill themselves in October. Sherry Miller, 43, and Marjorie Wantz, 58, used devices invented by Kevorkian. Miller had multiple sclerosis, and Wantz suffered from a painful pelvic disease.

Thompson said late Wednesday that the medical examiner had ruled that the women’s deaths were homicides.

The medical examiner’s report said the deaths were not suicide because “suicide is reserved for self-inflicted death and in this situation all the evidence indicates these deaths were brought about by another person,” the Detroit Free Press reported today.

A first-degree murder charge was dismissed Dec. 13, 1990, against Kevorkian in his role in helping an Oregon woman commit suicide in June, 1990. Kevorkian hooked Janet Adkins to a device similar to the one Wantz used, and Adkins pushed a button to give herself a lethal injection.

Thompson would not say if he believed that he had sufficient evidence to charge Kevorkian with murder.

“I don’t really want to get into the case until tomorrow,” he said.

A judge cited Michigan’s lack of any law against assisted suicide when he threw out the murder charge against Kevorkian in Adkin’s death.

Kevorkian’s attorney said the medical examiner’s ruling was politically motivated.

“That’s a change from what it has been; everybody knows they committed suicide,” he said. “I believe it was prompted by political pressure.”

There was no answer at Kevorkian’s apartment in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak on Wednesday night or at Fieger’s office in nearby Southfield. Fieger’s home number is not listed.

“I don’t have any comment. They’re off the wall,” medical examiner L. J. Dragovic said from his suburban Detroit home Wednesday night, referring to Kevorkian and Fieger.

Kevorkian told WXYZ that he was performing his duties as a doctor to ease pain and suffering.

“All that counts to me is the welfare of a patient,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”