Date: March 26, 1999
On this day with SHAC: a jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally-ill man. Kevorkian, who was also known as “Dr. Death,” was most noted for publicly championing a terminal patient’s right to die via physician-assisted suicide. He claims that, through his career, he assisted at least 130 patients to that end, and famously said that “dying is not a crime.”
Kevorkian was tried multiple times over the years for assisting his patients with their suicides. Many of these trials took place in Oakland County, Michigan. In every instance prior to the case over Thomas Youk, Kevorkian was beginning to gain some public support for his cause, as is evident by the defeat of Oakland County prosecutor Richard Thompson, by David Gorcyca, in the Republican primary. This is relevant due to the positions in which these two men ran, and the fact that Gorcyca was more favored by those who also supported Kevorkian. “Dr. Death” also demonstrated a flair for the dramatic, with publicity stunts, showing up at one trial in a powdered wig and, at another trial, staging a hunger strike where he wore a placard challenging the Oakland County prosecutor to bring him to trial for the death of Youk.
On March 26, 1999, Kevorkian was charged with second-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance, stemming from the evidence against him in the manner of Thomas Youk’s death. Kevorkian’s license to practice medicine had been revoked eight years prior; thus, he was not legally allowed to possess the controlled substance that was used to kill Mr. Youk. As homicide law is relatively fixed and routine, this trial was markedly different from earlier ones that involved an area of law in flux, like assisted suicide. After a long trial and Kevorkian discharging his attorneys, the Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder and he was later sentenced to 10 to 25 years in jail. After serving eight years, he was released on June 1, 2007.