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.
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This is a very damaged person. I hope the experience pushes him toward healing but suspect it’ll damage him further.
I don’t know how they can prosecute this guy. When I listen to Mark Levine online , I want to kill myself to.
If I were very very sick and I felt that life was no longer worth living, I wouldn’t want assistance per se, I would just want to take a sleeping pill and while I am sleeping, have someone give me a lethal injection.