Kevorkian Seeks Deal to Gain Hearing on Suicide Assist Ban

Retired pathologist Jack Kevorkian is willing to plead no contest to helping two people commit suicide in exchange for a hearing on the constitutionality of the Michigan law banning the practice, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Kevorkian was arraigned in Circuit Court on an assisted-suicide charge in the Sept. 9 death of Donald O’Keefe, 73, who had bone cancer. Kevorkian remained silent as the charge was read, and Judge Richard Kaufman entered an innocent plea on his behalf.

Kevorkian also is charged with assisting the Aug. 4 suicide of a 30-year-old man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Kevorkian’s lawyer, Geoffrey N. Fieger, said he wants Kevorkian to be able to plead no contest to the charges and testify at a hearing before Kaufman on the law’s constitutionality. He also wants advance promises that what Kevorkian says won’t be used against him and that the two cases be combined.

Kaufman scheduled a hearing for Nov. 4 to discuss the proposal.

Kevorkian, who believes that the terminally ill should have the right to commit suicide with a doctor’s help, has been at the scene of 19 deaths since 1990. Earlier this year, Michigan enacted a law against assisting a suicide in an attempt to stop Kevorkian.