NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, June 28, 1995
3B
Kevorkian's new clinic to aid suicides
The Associated Press
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Jack Kevorkian has started a clinic and was present there Monday for the death of a woman with Lou Gehrig's disease. It was the 24th death he has attended.
Erika Garcellano, 60, died at the clinic Kevorkian established for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of patients, his attorney, Geoffrey Fleger said.
Garcellano had suffered for at least three years from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative nerve disorder, Fleger said. She had been living at a nursing home in Kansas City, Mo.
Larry Bunting, assistant Oakland County prosecutor, said he was not aware of Garcellano's death.
"We don't have anything from the sheeriff's department and we're reserving judgment until we know what the facts are," Bunting said.
The clinic, in Oakland County north of Detroit, was named the Margo Janus Mercy Clinic after Kevorkian's sister.
Janus, who crushed with her brother for the right of assisted suicide, died last summer of a heart attack.
Fieger said the main purpose of the clinic was to provide a place for residents of other states to die.
"The intention of Dr. Kevorkian is to provide a foundation where other doctors can come forward and work with Dr. Kevorkian," Flegersaid.
Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, also
hopes the clinic can be used as a hospice and has long advocated establishing such a place. Feger said.
Fieger would not comment on how the clinic is equipped or staffed.
He said Kevorkian was not worried about protests at the clinic, because he believed most people supported its concept.
Attorney Michael Odette of Davisburg, who is representing the Garcellano family, said neither he nor the family would immediately comment.
Before Garcellano's death, Kevinian most recently attended the deaths of the Rev. John Evans and Nicholas John Loving in Mav.
Evans died at his home, and Loving's body was found in the back of Kevorkian's van, parked outside the Oakland County Medical Examiner's office.
The retired pathologist has not been charged in either of those deaths. Under a recent court ruling, he could be charged with murder in two earlier deaths and assisted suicide in three others.
The Michigan Legislature enacted a ban on assisting in a suicide in February 1993. It expired in November 1994.
The state supreme court ruled in December that there was no constitutional right to assisted suicide. The court also found that assisting a suicide is illegal under common law.
Kevorkian had appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the Constitution gives people the right to end intolerable pain, suffering or debilitation.
In April, the high court refused to hear the appeal.
Parents keep joint custody of Culkin kids
NEW YORK — "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin and five of his siblings were returned to their parents' joint custody Monday.
State Supreme Court Justice David Saxe had given temporary custody to their mother, Patricia Brentrup, on Friday after she alleged that the children's father, Christopher "Kit" Culkin, had walked out on the family and was jeopardizing the youngsters' movie careers.
Brentrup's lawyer, Stanford Lotwin, said Culkin vanished for five days with 12-year-old son Kieran, who was due to start filming the movie "Amanda" in Red Lodge, Mont. He said Culkin didn't call until this weekend, saying they were on their way to Red Lodge.
Saxe then lifted his temporary custody order. He said he issued it only to ensure that Kieran began work on time.
Donald Frank, Culkin's lawyer, denied Culkin had walked out on his family.
"In March, Ms. Brentrup up and says, 'Get out,' Frank said.
Brentrup and Culkin, who lived together 20 years and never married, have seven children. The oldest, Shane, was not included in the custody order.
Miscalculations leave more questions in Simpson trial
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A top scientist for the O.J. Simpson prosecution admitted Monday his calculations of genetic frequencies in mixed blood stains were consistently wrong because of his computer programming error.
"It was worse than I realized," said Bruce Weir, a world-renowned population geneticist whose statistics had been seen as a potentially dazzling capstone to the prosecution's DNA presentation.
He said he thought an error had been made in only one of his calculations, but instead the error ran through most of his totals that might link Simpson to the double-murders.
"Unfortunately for me, my program had a mistake." Weir told jurors. "So, I was consistent, but consistently wrong."
All of Weir's testimony involved stains containing a mixture of blood from at least two people. His role was not to tell jurors whose blood was in the stains, only what the
chances were that the blood came from any two or three given people in the world.
His mistakes, however, all involved stains that DNA experts already had said probably included Simpson's blood. For that reason, the defense contended Weir's errors were biased, because they made it appear unlikely that someone other than Simpson could have contributed to a stain.
Defense attorney Peter Neufeld led Weir through a series of corrections showing, according to his new figures, it was now about 21/2 times more likely that someone other than Simpson could have contributed to mixed blood stains.
The North Carolina State University scientist, who revised his calculations over the weekend, was measuring the impact on his career.
"I woke up this morning at 5 and wondered how I could avoid embarrassing myself again in court," he said.
Under redirect questioning by prosecutor George Clarke, Weir at first insisted he did not give special
"So all of these mixtures are calculated without regard to whoever they may or may not be consistent with in this case?" Clarke asked.
weight to the fact that some of the blood stains had been linked to Simpson and the victims.
"That's correct," Weir replied.
But before he left the stand, Weir testified that his figures showed a very rare profile linking blood evidence to Simpson.
"Is it just that he's not excluded or something more powerful?" Clarke asked.
"The evidence says it's very unlikely we would see that evidentary profile if it came from someone else." Weir said.
Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson said the testimony provided jurors who already might be skeptical of DNA with further reason to disbelieve it.
"A lot of it is hard to follow and jurors are ultimately going to have to say. 'We reject DNA because it's too hard to follow,' or accept the bottom-line numbers introduced earlier in the trial," she said.
Conservative Democrat moves loyalty
Democrats contend Laughlin switch is motivated by seat on committee
The Associated Press
VICTORIA, Texas — Rep. Greg Laughlin, a conservative Democrat who is on the outs with his party's leaders, is switching to the Republican Party.
Laughlin, D-Texas, who took office in 1989, is the fourth congressional Democrat to change parties since the Republicans recaptured control of Congress in November. With Laughlin, the GOP has a 232-202 majority in the House.
The 53-year-old Laughlin said the switch would mean he would have a seat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by a fellow Texan, Republican Bill Archer.
Republicans have floated rumors for days that he would leave the Democratic Party.
One of the House's most conservative Democrats, Laughlin and three other House members recently resigned from a committee that raises money for Democratic congressional candidates, saying it was intolerant of differing views.
Earlier this year, Laughlin joined 22 other conservative Democrats in creating a group known as The Coalition. Its stated purpose is to temper the extremes of both parties.
Laughlin voted for 14 of 17 major provisions in the GOP's Contract With America, including a $189 billion tax cut package that only 26 other Democrats supported.
"Greg Laughlin's party switch is an ill-advised act of a damaged politician who is selling out his district to Newt Gingrich for a choice Ways and Means Committee seat," said Bob Slagle, the Texas Democratic chairman.
State GOP chairman Tom Pauken said Laughlin's district, a largely rural strip of Texas stretching from the western outskirts of Austin to the Gulf of Mexico, clearly was a conservative one.
"He feels comfortable that not only should he make the jump for philosophical reasons, but I think he feels he has a good chance of winning that primary, if there is one," Paulen said.
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