Minnesota Man To Be Sentenced For Assisting Suicides Online

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2011 file photo, William Melchert-Dinkel, center, leaves the Rice County Courthouse in Faribault, Minn., with his attorney Terry Watkins, right, and wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel, after waiving ... FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2011 file photo, William Melchert-Dinkel, center, leaves the Rice County Courthouse in Faribault, Minn., with his attorney Terry Watkins, right, and wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel, after waiving his right to a jury trial. Melchert-Dinkel, 48, of Faribault, was found guilty Tuesday, March 15, 2011 of aiding the suicides of 18-year-old Kajouji of Brampton, Ontario, who jumped into a river in 2008, and 32-year-old Mark Drybrough of Coventry, England, who hung himself in 2005. (AP Photo/Robb Long, File) MORE LESS
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FARIBAULT, Minn. (AP) — A former nurse in Minnesota who has admitted to going online and encouraging two people to kill themselves is scheduled to be sentenced.

William Melchert-Dinkel is being sentenced Wednesday on one count of assisting suicide and one count of attempting to assist a suicide.

The 52-year-old was convicted on those counts in September — after the Supreme Court changed the state’sassisted suicide law and reversed his prior convictions in the deaths of an English man and a Canadian woman.

Melchert-Dinkel’s attorney plans to appeal the latest convictions. Among other things, Terry Watkins says he would’ve used a different defense if the case was originally filed under the law as it now stands. Under current law, it’s illegal to assist a suicide, but not illegal to encourage suicide.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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