Video Evidence in Court
The prosecutor, David Gorcyca, waited to file charges against Kevorkian unitl he had seen the unedited videotape, supplied to him by CBS. He, in fact, subpoenaed the videotape in order to help him decide. "A review of the tapes involving Mr. Youk and Kevorkian present sufficient facts and probable cause to support charges of assisted suicide," Gorcyca said (AP).
Kevorkian was arraigned on three charges - first-degree murder, criminal assistance to a suicide and delivery of a controlled substance (deathnet).
The issue was publicized with the use of the video on a grander scale than could have been done with only words or still images.
This videotape came at a time when the euthanasia issue was not moving ahead.
Kevorkian was charged for murder twice (in 1990 and 92) with the result that the charges were dropped because Michigan had no law against assisted suicide. He was acquitted in three trials and his fourth trial on murder charges was declared a mistrial. The death occurred on September 17, three weeks after assisted suicide became a felony in Michigan. This was Michigan's first assisted suicide law, brought about primarily by Kevorkian's activities since 1990. The videotaped euthanizing was aired three weeks after a ballot in Michigan to legalize assisted suicide was rejected at the polls by 71 percent of voters (deathnet).
So when the videotape was shown on "60 Minutes," assisted suicide had recently been declared a felony, an assisted suicide proposal was rejected by voters, and all of Kevorkian's previous roles in assisted suicides had not brought the issue to acceptability, but rather encouraged the passing of laws against it.
