Kevorkian Sought to Ease Pain, His Lawyer Says as Trial Opens

Jack Kevorkian’s attorney began his defense in Michigan’s first assisted-suicide case Thursday by raising two issues, including the surprise revelation that the death of a 30-year-old suffering from terminal Lou Gehrig’s disease took place in another county rather than in the city park where Kevorkian surrendered to police.

In addition, attorney Geoffrey N. Fieger told a jury in his opening statement that assisting suicide is not banned if the motive was to ease pain and suffering rather than to cause death. He contended that Thomas Hyde, who spoke with difficulty, could barely move and increasingly had trouble swallowing, would find relief only through dying. Kevorkian has admitted supplying carbon monoxide, tubing and a face mask to Hyde.

A subsection of the law states that the ban does not apply “if the intent is to relieve pain or discomfort and not to cause death, even if the medication or procedure may hasten or increase the risk of death.”

“It is not a crime if the only intent is to relieve pain,” Fieger said.

Prosecutor Timothy Kenny responded that “clearly, they are talking about medications and procedures that are experimental. So far, there’s nothing to indicate that carbon monoxide was in relief of pain.”

Hyde did not die on Belle Isle, a park in the Detroit River, where Kevorkian turned himself in, Fieger said. Hyde died in Kevorkian’s 1968 Volkswagen van in a parking lot behind the retired pathologist’s apartment in suburban Oakland County, the lawyer said. Only afterward did Kevorkian take the van, with Hyde’s corpse in the back, to Detroit.

Consequently, Fieger claimed, the prosecution would not be able to show that the crime occurred in Wayne County, where the case is being heard in Detroit Recorder’s Court.

Police witnesses concede that they never asked where Hyde died. Police Inspector James D. Arthurs grumbled later in a corridor: “I thought this guy wanted to confront the law. How come he’s ducking and dodging?”

No matter what the outcome, the issue of assisting suicide for the terminally ill will still be open here. The Michigan Court of Appeals is reviewing the constitutionality of the ban, which was enacted to keep Kevorkian from continuing his work while the Legislature considers whether and how to regulate help for suicides. Kevorkian is collecting signatures in hopes of placing an amendment to the state constitution on the November ballot.