Man Charged With Assisting Suicides Online, But Is He Protected by Freedom of Speech?

"Get a yellow nylon rope, about eight feet. That is all you need. And look around your apartment for somewhere to hang from. I can help you with the cam when you need to."

That's what William Melchert-Dinkel, a 47-year-old nurse from Faribault, Minnesota, told 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji on March 6, 2008. Kajouji, who had been chatting with Melchert-Dinkel online about her suicidal thoughts, went missing three days later. Despite a Facebook campaign by her friends and family, her body was not found until April, floating lifeless in the Rideau River in Ontario.

Melchert-Dinkel had been operating under the username "Cami," describing himself online as a depressed young woman, and met Kajouji by way of an online forum for the discussion of suicide. As his alter-ego Cami, he made a suicide pact with Kajouji and told her, "I will be here starting about 8:00 a.m. on Monday, if you need me. If you are still here (I hope not, for your sake), then try to come on early so we can do it if you want to." Needless to say, Melchert-Dinkel didn't uphold his end of the bargain.

But this was not Melchert-Dinkel's first foray into suicide-related chat rooms and message boards; police say that, in 2005, he befriended 32-year-old Mark Drybrough of Coventry, England. Drybrough was suffering from psychiatric illness, and had asked about various methods of self-asphyxiation in a message board posting. Melchert-Dinkle responded, this time as "Li Bao," with suggestions. Drybrough hanged himself from a ladder in July of that year.

Now, Melchert-Dinkel is in custody, charged with two counts of aiding suicide. When confronted by officers in January of this year, Melchert-Dinkel's admitted that "his interest in death and suicide could be considered an obsession," and prosecutors believe that he may have encouraged dozens of people to kill themselves.

The problem is, Melchert-Dinkel's crime has no real precedent. While some states bar assisted suicide, those cases typically involve a person who is either present at the time of death or providing means with which to end the victim's life (as with Dr. Jack Kevorkian). The sticky issue is how to prosecute someone accused of encouraging people to commit suicide, particularly when they've never actually met, and most particularly when they don't even live in the same country, as was the case with Kajouji and Drybrough. It may come down to the Constitution and the protections provided by the First Amendment.

Proponents of compassionate ends (for people with terminal illnesses, for instance) see Melchert-Dinkel's case as a giant leap backward in the freedom of choosing one's own death. Barbara Coombs-Lee, president of Compassion and Choices, told the New York Times, "There is a bright line between aid in dying and assisting in suicide like this." But, besides the problems of jurisdiction for Kajouji and Drybrough, Minnesota will face a tough legal challenge in deciding whether to criminalize speech that advocates crime.

Melchert-Dinkel has said that he enjoyed the "thrill" of getting people to kill themselves, and we wonder if the Internet has a significant role to play in his motives. Would Melchert-Dinkel have gone through with his actions if he had to look his companions in the eye? We've borne witness to the ugliest side of the Internet in the case of Abraham Biggs, who announced his intention to kill himself on live webcam back in 2008. Taunts and encouragements from up to 1,500 chatters on the Justin.tv channel continued even after Biggs's fatal overdose, and long before police were finally alerted and found the body.

But, in the case of Melchert-Dinkel, we could have the first remote serial killer. We're not going to mince words when we say that we find his actions not too different from those of Ted Bundy or Robert Hansen, people who preyed on vulnerable victims for the ecstasy of the kill. It's just that Melchert-Dinkel didn't have to get his hands dirty. But are we wrong? Is this an issue of free speech, or cold-blooded murder? Or is it even thornier than that? Leave your comments below. [From: New York Times]

Tags: AssistedSuicide, chat, crime, cyberbullying, Dr. Kevorkian, Dr.Kevorkian, im, Jack Kevorkian, JackKevorkian, MarkDrybrough, murder, NadiaKajouli, Suicide, top, web, WilliamMelchert-dinkel