Przysla kreska na Kevorkiana. Niebagatelny w tym udzial mial prokurator o swojsko brzmiacym nazwisku John Skrzynski http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/26/kevorkian.verdict/link.skrzynski.ap.jpg No coz, nosil wilk razy kilka... Irek ==================================================== Kevorkian found guilty of second-degree murder PONTIAC, Michigan (CNN) -- A jury found Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder Friday for giving a lethal injection to a terminally ill man. The jury also found Kevorkian guilty on a separate charge of delivery of a controlled substance to Thomas Youk, 52. Sentencing was set for April 14. During the trial that began Monday, the jury twice viewed a videotape of Kevorkian injecting a lethal drug into Youk, who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal illness that leaves victims unable to speak, swallow or move. CBS' "60 Minutes" aired the videotape last September after it was submitted to the program by Kevorkian, who has been fighting against laws banning assisted suicide for the terminally ill. The lethal injection was administered September 17. Shortly after they began deliberating Thursday, jurors asked to see once again the videotaped death of Youk. They also asked for a legal dictionary. Oakland County Circuit Judge Jessica Cooper denied that request, telling jurors they were not to do their own legal research. Cooper also rejected the prosecution's request for an explicit warning to the jurors against "jury nullification" - - setting aside the law out of sympathy for the defendant. Instead, she simply told the jurors that they must follow the law and that mercy killing is not an excuse for murder. The judge told jurors they could consider convicting Kevorkian of the lesser charges of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutor: 'A medical hit man' During closing arguments, Assistant Oakland County prosecutor John Skrzynski called Kevorkian a "medical hit man in the night with his bag of poison." "He's asking you to say that what he did is all right. He's asking you to say that euthanasia is all right. And it's not. It's a crime," Skrzynski told jurors. "What he did is a murder." Skrzynski argued that Youk's medical condition was no defense. "It would be hard for you to disregard Tom Youk's medical condition when you look at the videotapes back in the jury room .... but his medical condition is not what is at issue here," Skrzynski said. "The law does not look at the victim and say, 'Does the victim have a quality of life that's worth protecting?' The law protects everyone. The law applies to everyone," the lawyer said. Kevorkian: 'A medical service' The prosecutor "calls it a crime, a murder, a killing," Kevorkian said of Youk's death. "I call it a medical service. Youk came to me and said, 'Please help me.' The aim was a final solution to incurable agony." He gave Youk the lethal injection "to end his torture ... finally and definitively," Kevorkian told jurors in his closing arguments Thursday. Kevorkian compared himself to civil rights figures Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. "There are certain things that words on paper can never make a crime," Kevorkian said. "There are certain acts that by sheer common sense are not crimes." The judge refused to let Youk's widow, Melody, and brother Terry take the stand, saying their testimony was an attempt to demonstrate pain and suffering on her late husband's part, which is not a legal defense for murder in Michigan. Kevorkian rested his defense without calling witnesses. By his own count, Kevorkian has taken part in more than 130 deaths since 1990. He has been tried four times on assisted suicide charges, with three acquittals and one mistrial. ==============================================
