Judge makes no ruling today in Final Exit case

CUMMING - Georgia's high-profile case against four members of an assisted suicide group that helped a cancer-stricken man kill himself may hinge on what defense attorneys say is a fatal flaw in the state law used to prosecute them.

The attorneys for the four Final Exit Network members asked a judge Friday to dismiss charges because Georgia law doesn't actually ban assisted suicide, but rather restricts the group from advertising its services. The attorneys contend the law violates state and federal free speech laws.

``We are being prosecuted for publicly advertising something that's perfectly legal,'' said Don Samuel, one of six defense attorneys at a court hearing on the case. ``This couldn't possibly be a crime.''

Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn said lawmakers drafted the statute to discourage assisted suicide, even if that wasn't spelled out in the law. She urged Superior Court Judge David Dickinson to dismiss the challenge so the case could move forward.

``The Legislature decides what's acceptable and what's tolerable. Wholesale public offers to assist in suicide are unacceptable,'' she said. ``It's not just offering a Web site or a book. They are physically involved in the act of assisted suicide.''

Dickinson did not immediately issue a ruling, but his decision won't likely resolve the dispute. Both sides suggested the case would ultimately be appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court regardless of the judge's ruling.

The four members of the network were arrested in February 2009 after 58-year-old John Celmer's death at his north Georgia home. They were arrested after an eight-month investigation by state authorities, in which an undercover agent posing as someone seeking to commit suicide infiltrated the group.

A grand jury in March indicted Ted Goodwin, the group's former president; group member Claire Blehr; ex-medical director Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert; and regional coordinator Nicholas Alec Sheridan. The four pleaded not guilty to charges that they tampered with evidence, violated anti-racketeering laws and helped the man kill himself.

Georgia authorities say Celmer was making a remarkable recovery from cancer when the network sent ``exit guides'' to his home to show him how to suffocate himself using helium tanks and a plastic hood. And police say that in 2007, the group helped an Arizona woman named Jana Van Voorhis who was depressed but not terminally ill.

Prosecutors say Goodwin and Blehr were with Celmer when he died, each holding one of his hands, and that they removed a helium tank and hood Celmer wore to help him suffocate. Investigators said Egbert and Sheridan evaluated him before his death and gave the OK for his suicide.

The network's leaders have acknowledged they helped nearly 200 people across the country die. But they say they never actively assisted suicide, but guided them through the complicated suicide process outlined in the ``The Final Exit,'' a best-selling suicide manual by British author Derek Humphry.

``The allegations against us are pure fantasy,'' said Goodwin, who is now the president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, an international advocacy group.

Goodwin and others said they hope the legal fight will help validate the movement's efforts while exposing the constitutional defects in Georgia law. Defense attorney Robert Rubin said the state's assisted suicide restrictions are among the most ``convoluted'' in the nation.

``The ironic and bizarre thing is that in Georgia assisted suicide is not illegal and suicide is not illegal,'' said attorney Robert Rubin. ``If the government is interested in the prevention of suicide, then that is the statute they should have passed. But they didn't.''