Mike Wallace Letter Appears to Be in Support of Kevorkian

Is Mike Wallace in favor of assisted suicide?

Noting an “apparent irony” between the recent execution of Timothy McVeigh and the death of a man who was euthanized by Dr. Jack Kevorkian 2 1/2 years ago, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent has written an unusual letter published in the most recent edition of the New York Review of Books that stops just short of endorsing Kevorkian, who’s serving 10 to 25 years in a Michigan prison.

In November 1998, “60 Minutes” broadcast a tape of Kevorkian’s assisted suicide of Thomas Youk, which led to the doctor’s second-degree murder conviction. In the letter, Wallace writes, “Why do I raise all of this again now? [Because] Thomas Youk’s killer did what he did out of compassion, unlike McVeigh, who killed out of bitterness. As I’ve come to know more about Jack Kevorkian over the past two years, I’ve learned that the conventional wisdom about him was wrong. Fanatic? No. Zealot? Yes.”

Wallace adds, McVeigh was “allowed to make statements to reporters [after] his conviction. Jack Kevorkian has been silenced since his.”

Wallace--who reported the ’98 story on Kevorkian--couldn’t be reached for comment, but a spokesman said “the letter stands for itself.”