Jack Lessenberry looks back 20 years, to the trials of Jack Kevorkian, for a parallel to the effort by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to hold back the national tide of gay-marriage acceptance.
After Wayne County Prosecutor John O'Hair declined to mount a crusade to convict Kevorkian for his involvement in assisted suicide, Lessenberry notes Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson, a conservative Catholic, refused to see that further prosecutions of Kevorkian would be a waste of time.
"So he charged Jack Kevorkian again. Four times."
The county spent thousands bringing in expert witnesses at taxpayers’ expense. Fieger brought in others. Everyone grandstanded. Juries listened, deliberated…and acquitted Kevorkian, every time.
Then, when the next primary election rolled around, Prosecutor Thompson was challenged by a young unknown named Dave Gorcyca. Gorcyca had one simple slogan: If elected, he would stop wasting taxpayer money on the fruitless prosecutions. When the votes were counted, he won easily.
I’ve been thinking about those Kevorkian trials, ever since the current same-sex marriage and adoption trial got underway in federal district court in Detroit. In a time of scarcity, when other prosecutors lack basic resources, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has been mounting a highly-expensive, full-court press in an effort to try and prevent the court from finding two things: That same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children, and marry if they please.
