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Show Page 2 ation & tate April 7, 1999 j eromeml Editor: Mike Sherwood Dr. Death Could Get Life Tribune Media Sc vices After deliberating more than five hours Thursday, the jury in Dr. Jack Kevorkian's murder trial had already spent more time behind closed doors than they had listening to arguments and testimony during the trial. Jurors were to resume their deliberations Friday. Kevorkian, who presented no witnesses and acted as his own attorney during the brief trial, argued that his intent was not to kill a terminally ill Michigan man but to ease his suffering. And he indicated his primary intent was to push e the debate to the limit, even if it meant possible life imprisonment for right-to-di- himself. Kevorkian, 70, has said he will starve himself to death if convicted. During the trial that began Monday prosecutors relied mainly on tire videotape that Kevorkian made of Thomas Youk's death last September, which aired on the CBS news program "60 Minutes." The tape was replayed for the jury. In closing arguments marked by repeated objections from the prosecution and a logic equation neatly outlined on the courtroom chalkboard, Kevorkian urged jurors to focus on his merciful goal. He was trying to provide "a medical service" that would alleviate the "torture" of the Youk, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian told jurors in Oakland County Circuit Court that medical service is exempt from certain laws and equated his actions to those of some of history's great civil rights leaders. "When Rosa Parks sat on the bus, was that a crime? Did Martin Luther King want to go to jail?" Kevorkian argued. Speaking directly to the jurors, the retired pathologist said: "Look at me before you. "Do you see a criminal? Do you see a murderer? If you do, then you must convict and then take the harsh judgment of history and the harsher judgment of your 2hotmail.com Operating Room Set Up For Sex Torture children and grandchildren when they Tribune Media Services need that precious choice. A couple accused of running a sex torture Acquittal "leads to some progress in human society, a little progress, a little ring had set up a crude operating room in a trailprotection of rights when we need it er where investigators think they took their vicmost," Kevorkian said. tims, sources dose to the case said Monday. Oakland County Prosecutor John According to news reports, the storage trailthe that to a mobile home belonging to David Ray next er Skrzynski argued tape showing Kevorkian injecting Youk with lethal and his girlfriend, Cindy Hendy, was sounddrugs left no question as to whether the proof. It contained scalpels, alligator clips, a voltmurder was deliberate and premeditatage regulator, books on anatomy and serial ed. killers and a gynecological table with stirrups "He came like a medical hitman in and lights overhead, reminiscent of an operating the night, with his bag of poison to do his room. Also found inside were video cameras and several drawings and photographs of women job," Skrzynski told jurors. By administering the drugs himself, who appeared to be in various stages of torture. Kevorkian escalated the controversial Ray, 59, and Hendy, 39, have been charged debate from assisted suicide with dozens of crimes, induding the kidnapto euthanasia. In the past, Kevorkian has ping, rape and torture of two women. They face set up devices by which clients delivered preliminary hearings next week; when their the fatal agents to themselves. Kevorkian attorneys are expected to enter not guilty pleas has presided over the deaths of more on their behalf. Bond has been set at $1 million than 130 people since 1990. each. Kevorkian is "furthering a political Investigators dedded to raid Ray and agenda" and taking the delicate Hendy's home after an Albuquerque woman ran decisions out of the hands of the to neighbors wearing only a padlocked metal populace and placing them squarely collar with a chain attached. The woman told with the 12 jurors, Skrzynski said. them she had escaped from tire trailer, where she Judge Jessica Cooper told the jurors had been electrically shocked, whipped and they could consider convicting raped with sexual devices for three days. Kevorkian of second-degre- e murder or Another woman with making similar daims involuntary manslaughter, as well as has also stepped forward. murder. Authorities are trying to determine whether other victims may have been killed. end-of-li- fe first-degr- From the Last Weeks Campus Security Incident Reports. March 29 - Two j'uveniles were arrested for trespass and curfew violations. March 29 - Manuel D. Lopez, 30, was arrested for driving on a denied license. March 29 - Darrell Luke Whitney, 18, was arrested for trespass. April 1 - Jason T. Fullmer, 20, was arrested for driving under the influence, minor consumption of alcohol, false identification, and driving on a suspended license. At the Cypress Hill concert on April 2: Roberto Lomelli, 19, was arrested for disorderly conduct and -- intoxication. Tyler A. Johnson, 18, Lance O. William, 18, Trevor McKean Francis, 18, Justin Lee Reber, 20, Erika Gandre, 19, were arrested for a minor consuming alcohol. Nathaniel P. Merkley was arrested for tobacco. Five juveniles were arrested: three for minors consuming alcohol, two for tobacco violations, and one for disorderly conduct. April 3 - Curtis Hal Olson, 18, was arrested for minor consuming alcohol. April 3 - A juvenile was arrested for curfew violation. -- --- |