This was the first time Kevorkian had been convicted of any charges connected to an assisted suicide. He had already purportedly assisted over 100 persons to commit suicide. He demanded that District Judge Daniel Sawicki send him to jail. The judge ordered that he either spent 60 days in jail or had to pay a $900 fine. Kevorkian's lawyer convinced him to pay the fine.
Kevorkian, at 70 years of age, was realizing that he was quickly running out of time in getting assisted suicide legalized. It was written that as Kevorkian paid his fine, he stated to reporters present, "We need a felony conviction now. That's the only way we're going to get anywhere with this."
Kevorkian committed that felony on September 17, 1998, when he caused the death of Thomas Youk, a 52 year old man suffering from the advanced stages of Lou Gehrig's. Mr. Youk's condition prevented him from being able to actually "push the button" on the suicide machine. It has been reported that Thomas Youk want to die in this way rather than to risk choking to death from his condition.
Kevorkian made a 14-minute videotape of the death of Thomas Youk in which he was seen injecting three drugs into the right hand of Mr. Youk. When Mr. Youk's heart had stopped, Kevorkian announced: "He's flatlined."
I am sure Dr. Kevorkian was thinking that he would be acquitted by jury nullification. It seems that he was not only being idealist, but he also appeared to suffer from the delusion that he could function as a lawyer as well as a physician.
He was willing to be a martyr and it appeared that he might have also been suicidal. He frequently mentioned that he planned to starve himself if convicted and sentenced to prison.
Kevorkian approached officials of CBS with his admission of assisting Youk. He presented them with the videotape and it was aired on "60 Minutes." When "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace asked Kevorkian, if he killed the person on the tape Kevorkian admitted that he did.
During the broadcast, Kevorkian dared Prosecutor David Gorcyca to charge him with a crime and let a jury decide again whether he was a man of mercy or a doctor of death. Mike Wallace was also told by Kevorkian that, "They must charge me. Because if they do not, that means they don't think it's a crime."
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