Kervorkian Arraigned For Three Assisted Suicides

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was charged Thursday with assisting three suicides since June - a defeated prosecutor’s last-ditch effort to put the retired pathologist in prison.

Kevorkian, ever defiant, surrendered to police and was arraigned on 19 charges brought by Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson, including three counts of assisting in suicides - a common law felony.

“This is the end of it,” Kevorkian declared outside court. “This has got to die as a legal issue. Or I die, one of the two. I don’t care which way it is, but’s it’s going to end now.”

Thompson, who failed in two previous attempts to convict Kevorkian, filed the new charges even though his term ends Dec. 31. He lost a primary to a candidate who accused him of wasting tax dollars pursuing Kevorkian.

Thompson said he expects his successor to carry out the case.

“You do not have a right under the law in the state of Michigan to assist in a suicide,” he said.

Kevorkian, 68, an advocate of doctor-assisted suicide, has acknowledged being present at 44 deaths since 1990.