Michigan Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Appeals in Kevorkian Case

The state Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear appeals in several cases involving Michigan’s law banning assisted suicide and attempts to prosecute Dr. Jack Kevorkian for murder.

The court said it would decide whether the assisted suicide law violated the state or federal constitutions and whether Kevorkian can be tried for murder in the assisted suicides of two women who died before the state ban was in place. Arguments were scheduled for Oct. 4.

The Michigan Court of Appeal ruled May 10 that the assisted suicide ban was unconstitutional because of a flaw in the way it was adopted.

The law, passed specifically to stop Kevorkian, was added to a bill setting up a commission to study assisted suicide. The Michigan constitution requires that bills cover only one subject.

The appeals court also ruled May 10 that the state constitution guarantees no right to suicide or assisted suicide. And it said Kevorkian could be tried for murder in connection with two assisted suicides that took place in 1991 before the law was passed.