Jurors Begin Deliberations in Kevorkian Assisted-Suicide Trial

Jurors began deliberations Friday in Jack Kevorkian’s third assisted-suicide trial after his lawyer told them the doctor was the target of vindictive Michigan judges and prosecutors.

The common-law crime under which Kevorkian is charged was unconstitutionally fabricated by a tyrannical Michigan Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals, attorney Geoffrey Fieger told jurors during his closing arguments.

“Some men and women got together in a back room in Lansing and said, ‘How do we get Jack Kevorkian?’ ” Fieger said.

Assistant Prosecutor Lawrence Bunting said Kevorkian’s conspiracy theory “sounds like paranoia run rampant.”

Jurors began deliberating about 3:15 p.m. EDT after receiving instructions from Oakland County Circuit Judge David F. Breck. The six men and six women deliberated for about three hours before they were sent home for the weekend. They will reconvene Monday.

Kevorkian, who has been acquitted twice of similar charges, faces up to five years in prison on each of two counts if convicted.

He does not dispute attending the suicides of Sherry Miller and Marjorie Wantz in 1991, and providing the materials used in their deaths. Miller, 43, of Roseville, Mich., had multiple sclerosis and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Wantz, 58, of Sodus, Mich., had severe pelvic pain and was given a lethal drug injection.

Fieger repeated his argument that Kevorkian intended to relieve the women’s pain, not to see them die.

But Bunting said Kevorkian could only intend to kill someone by providing lethal drugs and gas. To say otherwise, he said, “is to play fast and loose with the truth, with common sense and with the facts.”

Kevorkian is being tried based on a 1994 Michigan Supreme Court ruling that said assisted suicide is a common-law crime. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider Kevorkian’s appeal.