http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/04/news/friend.html
Helpful advice or criminal act in Connecticut?
By William Yardley The New York Times
Saturday, March 5, 2005
CORNWALL, Connecticut It seems no one in this tiny town believes a crime was committed on the morning last June when Huntington Williams cleaned a revolver and advised his old friend John Welles where to aim.
Welles, 66, was dying of cancer and, according to a police report, wanted to make sure he killed himself with one clean shot.
When he told Williams he was considering firing the gun through his mouth, toward his spine, Williams, 74, suggested aiming a little higher, more toward the center of his skull. Then, Williams told investigators later that day, he walked down the long driveway of Welles' remote and rambling old house and waited for his friend to pull the trigger.
He was about to say "God bless" when he heard a single shot. Williams called 911, the emergency number.
More than seven months after Welles committed suicide, a state prosecutor charged Williams with second-degree manslaughter, citing what state police investigators said Williams had told them about Welles' last day and a state law that specifically addresses assisted suicide. The felony charge could bring 10 years in prison.
Welles, a colorful and beloved local figure who never married, never held a steady job and walked barefoot in the summer, talked openly and unemotionally about killing himself if he became incapacitated. Yet while his suicide may not have been surprising, the arrest of Williams stunned many people in Cornwall, population 1,434, a cluster of villages in northwest Connecticut.
Friends and relatives of both men say that the role Williams played in Welles' final moments was a merciful one. They say a rich life ended in a moment of deep friendship and self-determination.
"I don't think it occurred to anybody that this was assisted suicide," said Barbara Bartlett, Welles' sister. "John stood all by himself. I don't see that as assisted suicide personally, and I don't think anyone in Cornwall does."
On Feb. 7, more than 70 people showed up to support Williams on his first court date. Many others have written letters supporting him. A state senator has urged legislation that would give judges the option to grant a special form of probation, and no prison term, in cases of assisted suicide.
"The Legislature, when confronted with these facts, I think, will change the law," said the senator, Andrew W. Roraback, a Republican whose district includes Cornwall.
In Cornwall, Welles and Williams were popular without seeking attention. People described each man as a kind of endangered Yankee ideal, self-reliant and self-effacing but also generous and warm.
Williams, who looks much younger than his age, is an emergency medical technician, known for helping people in need. He was at Welles' house the morning of the suicide as part of a round-the-clock rotation of friends caring for Welles after he checked himself out of a nursing home days before his death.
A widower whose wife died of cancer in 1994, Williams lives in a modest house on a ridge overlooking his wife's family's farm. He taught high school vocational agriculture classes when he was younger and for a while drove a taxi part-time. He joined the volunteer fire department at 70, and he is the town's civil preparedness coordinator.
He greeted a reporter one evening wearing a heavy outdoor work suit. He was polite, apologizing when he said he could not agree to an interview because of the charges he faced.
In the police report, he said: "This is what John wanted. I had a comfortable feeling that this was right for him, knowing the man."
Welles rarely saw doctors. By the time he was found to have prostate cancer last spring, it had spread to his spine, and he knew he would live only a few more weeks, his friends and family said. He refused treatment.
David Shepack, the state's attorney who is prosecuting the case against Williams, has been criticized for filing charges. He would not comment when asked whether he had reservations.
"The problem we have is when one reviews the statute," he said.
He referred to a state law that says someone can be charged with second-degree manslaughter if he or she "intentionally causes or aids another person, other than by force, duress or deception, to commit suicide." Footnotes to the statute say people can be "blameworthy" even if they act out of sympathy for "one inflicted with a painful and incurable disease."
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