NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      PONTIAC, Michigan (CWNews.com) - Pro-life groups declared victory on Friday as a Michigan jury convicted assisted suicide activist Jack Kevorkian of second-degree murder for his role in the death of a Lou Gehrig's disease patient last year.

      The jury deliberated for a day and a half following the two day trial in which prosecutors sought a conviction of first-degree murder in the lethal injection death of Thomas Youk. Kevorkian had claimed the slaying was a mercy killing, and had given the videotape to the CBS news show "60 Minutes" which later broadcast portions. The jury also convicted Kevorkian on a lesser charge of illegal delivery of a controlled substance.

      In an interview with the Oakland Press newspaper on Saturday, Kevorkian called the jury cruel. "Manslaughter, I could understand how they would arrive at that," Kevorkian said. "But murder? This? They must have been an astonishingly cruel jury." The Michigan Catholic Conference hailed the outcome of the trial. "We applaud the decision of the jury in the Kevorkian trial who, by their action, have made it very clear that in a civil society the rule of law is preeminent," the group said in a statement. "No one man is above the law and this has been demonstrated today."

      Kevorkian has acknowledged assisting in 130 suicides since 1990 and had been acquitted on assisted suicide charges in previous four trials.