by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
During a June 18 interview with CNN’s Larry King, convicted murderer Jack Kevorkian admitted to not only to killing the man for whom he spent eight years in prison, but also to a woman years earlier.
After introducing the man known as “Dr. Death” as a “pathologist and a right-to-die activist” who was involved in 130 physician-assisted suicides, CNN host Larry King enters into a long discussion with Kevorkian who served nearly a decade behind bars after administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease in 1998. The suicide was filmed and eventually aired on 60 Minutes.
Near the end of their discussion, Kevorkian admits that Youk was not the only person he killed by direct intervention. During this particular exchange, King asked him if he did anything different in the Youk killing than in the others, which were done with a “do-it-yourself” method that allows the patient to control the switch that delivers the lethal injection.
“I did the injection,” Kevorkian says.
Larry King asks: “Usually they kill themselves, right? So, that was not pure suicide.”
To which Kevorkian responds: “No. I did the first one too, [Janet] Adkins, the first case. After that, we had the method where the patient could trigger it themselves.”
Janet Adkins, 54, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was killed by lethal injection by Kevorkian in the back of his car in a Michigan campground in 1990. A Michigan judge eventually threw out murder charges against Kevorkian, citing the fact that Adkins injected herself.
Now that the truth about the Adkins murder has been revealed, outrage is growing.
“Adkins had early Alzheimer’s disease, meaning she had many years left of life, and in fact, played tennis with her sons a few days before her apparent murder,” writes attorney and bioethicist Wesley J. Smith for First Things.
“So, Kevorkian has admitted he’s a repeat murderer. Technically, since there is no statute of limitations for murder, he could be prosecuted for Atkins’ homicide. Instead, he’ll keep getting high level interviews, movies made about him starring Al Pacino, and $50,000 speaking fees at state funded universities.”
He adds: “We sure do have a twisted love for outlaws in this country.”
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