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LANSING, MICH---In a 7-2 vote, the Michigan Parole Board has recommended that the Governor deny Dr. Death's request to grant a pardon and/or commutation of his sentence so that he can "die with some dignity by being free".
The attorney for Jack Kevorkian,77, had filed an application with the parole board, asking it to immediately forward the request to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm who has the ultimate say in the matter.
Kevorkian is scheduled for release in June of 2007, a date his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, says Kevorkian may never see. Kevorkian is serving a 10 to 25 year term for second degree murder in an assisted suicide which was televised on "60 Minutes".
Kevorkian's attorney says that Kevorkian is suffering from dangerously high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, temporal arteritis, peripheral arthritis, adrenal insufficiency, chronic pulmonary obstruction disease and cataracts. He also has Hepatitis C which he contracted in Vietnam testing transfusions giving to American soldiers.
According to Morganroth, Kevorkian is so frail that simply walking is dangerous. "He's fallen twice, fracturing two ribs and injuring his wrist," Morganroth said. "Kevorkian also suffers from diplopia, vertigo, dysphasgia, headaches, and osteoporosis." He has served 6 ½ years of his sentence.
The Governor said in the past that she wouldn't consider a pardon. The parole board has turned down previous requests in 2003 and 2004.
MSNBC had interviewed Kevorkian at the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Mich., where he is incarcerated. Kevorkian, who has admitted to participating in at least 130 assisted suicides, was convicted in April, 1999 of fatally injecting drugs into a patient afflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease in 1998. He claimed it was euthanasia or mercy killing but the jury said it was murder. 12-22-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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