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Topic: sick voyeur, or assisted suicide? (Read 3059 times) |
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MoEnzyme
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sick voyeur, or assisted suicide?
« on: 2011-03-15 17:45:57 » |
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I didn't think this really counted as "Serious Business", but I found it fascinating regardless. I personally don't think this guy is really guilty of assisted suicide. He talked to 20 people, believed 10 of them actually committed suicide, although in reality only 2 did. I'm thinking these couple of tortured souls would have probably figured out how to kill themselves in these relatively crude tried and true ways without his help. I think of him more as a sick voyeur in the process rather than a Jack Kevorkian gone apeshit. All that given, I'm not surprised the trial judge found him guilty - just leaving it up to the appeals court which I think was his attorney's strategy all along.
Judge finds former nurse guilty of assisting suicide
by Elizabeth Dunbar, Minnesota Public Radio
March 15, 2011
William Melchert-Dinkel, center, leaves the Rice County Courthouse with his attorney Terry Watkins, right, and wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel, after waiving his right to a jury trial Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, in Faribault, Minn. Melchert-Dinkel was found guilty Tuesday of encouraging several people online to commit suicide. (AP File Photo/Robb Long)
St. Paul, Minn. — A Rice County judge has issued a written guilty verdict in the case of a former Faribault nurse accused of assisting two suicides through online communication.
William Melchert-Dinkel had been charged with two counts of assisting suicide in the deaths of a woman from Canada and man from England.
Rice County District Court Judge Thomas Neuville on Tuesday found that Melchert-Dinkel intentionally encouraged and advised Nadia Kajouji and Mark Drysbrough to commit suicide in 2008 and 2005, respectively.
Melchert-Dinkel had waived his right to a jury trial and agreed upon the facts of the case, so the judge's findings were not surprising.
Melchert-Dinkel's attorney, Terry Watkins, had tried to get the case dismissed, saying his client was exercising his free speech rights and couldn't be charged under Minnesota's assisted suicide statute because the alleged victims were in other countries. He also said Minnesota's law was void for vagueness.
But Neuville rejected the arguments, allowing the charges to stand.
During the bench trial late last month, Watkins also argued that Kajouji and Drysbrough had already decided to kill themselves before talking to Melchert-Dinkel.
In his order, Neuville disagreed.
"These arguments are irrelevant because predisposition of the person who commits suicide is not a defense" to the statute, Neuville wrote. "The predisposition of a suicide victim actually makes the victim more vulnerable to encouragement or advice, and their death more imminent and foreseeable."
Neuville said Melchert-Dinkel "never tried to discourage" the victims of committing suicide. "Rather, the facts indicate repeated and relentless encouragement by Defendant to complete the suicide," he wrote.
Melchert-Dinkel has a chance to have an appeals court weigh-in, and several law experts said they expect he will appeal.
Watkins, Melchert-Dinkel's attorney, was in court and did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/03/15/melchert-dinkel-former-nurse-assisting-suicide-guilty/
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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Fritz
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Re:sick voyeur, or assisted suicide?
« Reply #1 on: 2011-03-15 19:28:19 » |
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Quote from: MoEnzyme on 2011-03-15 17:45:57
I didn't think this really counted as "Serious Business", but I found it fascinating regardless. I personally don't think this guy is really guilty of assisted suicide. He talked to 20 people, believed 10 of them actually committed suicide, although in reality only 2 did. I'm thinking these couple of tortured souls would have probably figured out how to kill themselves in these relatively crude tried and true ways without his help. I think of him more as a sick voyeur in the process rather than a Jack Kevorkian gone apeshit. All that given, I'm not surprised the trial judge found him guilty - just leaving it up to the appeals court which I think was his attorney's strategy all along.
[url=http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/03/15/melchert-dinkel-former-nurse-assisting-suicide-guilty/][b]Judge finds former nurse guilty of assisting suicide |
Sounds like he may have a history of badness on the interent [Fritz]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel
<snip>William Francis Melchert-Dinkel (born July 20, 1962, from Faribault, Minnesota, United States) is a former LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) and accused online predator.<snip>
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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MoEnzyme
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infidel lab animal
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Re:sick voyeur, or assisted suicide?
« Reply #2 on: 2011-03-16 19:36:53 » |
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A friend forwarded this joke to me after reading my thoughts on this subject here. So I thought I would take the bullet on this one and share for the sake of everyone else's entertainment:
Quote:After both suffering depression for a while, me and the wife were going to commit suicide yesterday.
But strangely enough, once she killed herself I started to feel a lot better.
So I thought:" Fuck it, I think I'll soldier on!" |
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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