Finally came the denouement: Nicol plunged three needles into Badger’s right arm, through which the lethal fluid would flow. While her daughter held her hands, Badger hugged a teddy bear, and Kevorkian looked on silently. At Nicol’s cue, the patient tugged a string, releasing the deadly mixture into her veins. It was all supposed to take 20 to 40 seconds, but Badger lingered for almost eight minutes, and as her life ebbed away, she complained of a burning sensation in her arm. When Nichols showed concern, Nicol flashed some gallows humor: “Don’t worry. We’ve never saved a patient yet.”
A moment later, Badger asked her daughter for a final kiss. Within minutes she was dead. “I’m glad I don’t have to see her suffer,” Nichols says now. But she is left to wonder: Did her mother, with her daughter’s approval, do the right thing?
– RICHARD JEROME
– FANNIE WEINSTEIN in Detroit, MARC BALLON and LYNDON STAMBLER in Los Angeles, LAIRD HARRISON in Concord, Calif., and TOM DUFFY in Pembroke
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/daily/0,2960,23076,00.html
Kevorkian Is Sentenced But Not Silenced–Time Magazine Online
The battle for the hearts and minds of America now begins in earnest with the appeal of his conviction
Dr. Death will no longer be making house calls. On Tuesday, Judge Jessica Cooper sentenced Dr. Jack Kevorkian to 10 to 25 years behind bars for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old man ravaged by Lou Gehrig?s disease whom Kevorkian killed by lethal injection last September. The judge also denied bond to the 70-year-old Kevorkian while he appeals his conviction. Said Judge Cooper sternly, ?You had the audacity to go on national television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you. Well, sir, consider yourself stopped.? Clearly, says TIME Midwest correspondent Julie Grace, Judge Cooper, a liberal jurist who has grown increasingly conservative on the bench, wanted to send a message to Kevorkian: ?She wanted to let him know the buck stops here and that the state of Michigan will no longer tolerate this kind of activity.?
But don’t count the doctor out just yet. Expect Kevorkian, his legal advisers and his supporters to send a message back: Grace reports that ?almost from the minute the verdict came down last month, his advisers have been planning a grassroots letter-writing and lobbying campaign to get the conviction overturned on appeal.? Though the appeal will be argued on the law, of course, it will be enveloped with as much emotion and outpouring of support as can be mustered from Kevorkian?s very loyal backers. Will the passion lead Kevorkian to carry through on his threat to starve himself in prison to publicize his cause? ?You can expect anything from Kevorkian, but starvation now seems unlikely,? says Grace. ?He wants to make a long-term impact. That won?t happen if he dies in 30 days.?
DR. DEATH BACK IN COURT ABCNEWS.COM
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/kevorkian981209.html