George Exoo Foils Irish Extradition Plan for "Assisted Suicide"

USA, Oct. 26 2007

On Friday, October 26, 2007, U.S. District
Magistrate Judge R. Clarke VanDervoort decreed
that the United States would not extradite The
Reverend George David Exoo, an ordained Unitarian
minister, human rights activist, and leader in the international Right-to-Die Movement, to face
charges of "assisting a suicide" in Ireland. The
judge found that neither federal nor a preponderance of U.S. state laws would support a
conviction for any wrongdoing on Exoo's part.

Exoo, aged 65, broke into tears of joy as the
judge declared him a free man. His supporters in
the audience gallery also wept with relief and
jubilation and hugged each other, knowing that
their three-month vigil of support could now end.
If the complex, contradictory laws that governed
the case had worked against him, Exoo would have
become the first person to be extradited from any
country on an assisted suicide charge. Exoo was
immediately released from his handcuffs and will return home today.

Exoo had traveled to Dublin in January 2002 to
provide Rosemary Toole, then 48, with pastoral
counseling, prayer, and to lend a compassionate
presence as she ended her own life by her own
hand by taking a massive overdose of sleeping
pills mixed with alcohol and by inhaling helium
gas. This method of suicide is explained in the
international best-selling book, Final Exit, by
Derek Humphry, founder of The Hemlock Society USA.

In June 2004, the Republic of Ireland demanded
that the U.S. extradite Exoo, alleging that he
had "assisted" her suicide, which in Ireland is a
felony offense carrying a maximum penalty of fourteen years in jail.

Three years later, federal agents, acting on the
request of the Irish government, arrested Exoo at
his home in Beckley, West Virginia on June 29,
2007. Although convicted of no crime, he spent
91 days in jail awaiting the judge's ruling on
whether or not the extradition treaty between the
U.S. and Ireland applied to Exoo.

His case was unique, because although assisting a suicide is a felony under Irish law, there is no equivalent federal law in the U.S., nor in Exoo's home state of West Virginia. Federal prosecutor Philip Wright argued that, if assisting a suicide is a
felony in a majority of U.S. states, Exoo should
be extradited-although he admitted that
extradition for this charge had never been done
before. "I haven't been able to find a case where
they actually went to that stage," Wright stated.
Wright's argument did not convince the judge.
Ireland's case was dismissed, and Exoo is now a free man.

According to her late father, Owen Toole,
Rosemary Toole had been desperate to die. She
suffered from Cushing's Syndrome, a tormenting
medical disorder, and from many years of profound
depression. She had attempted suicide before, and
had spent the previous two years actively seeking
information from Right-to-Die groups worldwide on
how to do it this time in a peaceful, painless
way with absolute certainty of success. Prior to
Exoo's arrival in Ireland, she had already
procured all the necessary medicines, helium supply, and equipment.

Exoo had always admitted being present as Toole
took her own life, but stated unequivocally that
he took no active role whatsoever in assisting or
hastening her death. He emphasized that his
actions consisted solely of counseling,
compassion, and prayer. The Harvard Divinity
School graduate noted that every year, thousands
of ministers routinely provide compassionate
spiritual presence and pray with dying people.
"If comforting and praying with a dying person is
either a sin or a crime, then most of the
ministers, priests, and rabbis in America,
Ireland, and the rest of the world must be
sinners, criminals, or both," Exoo said.

Richard N. Ctti, Exoo's volunteer media
representative, friend, and colleague since 1979,
and a ten-year member of Exoo's congregation
while he served as minister of the Unitarian
Church of Charleston, South Carolina, said that
"George Exoo's vindication is proof positive that
the governments of the world are finally starting
to catch up with the will of the people: namely,
that the right to die with dignity at the time of
one's own choice is a fundamental, immutable
human right, and not a privilege to be defined,
granted, or denied by officials of either the church or the state."

After regaining his health, which suffered during
his incarceration, Exoo has stated that he plans
to renew his attempt to establish a hospice for
those stricken by AIDS, a public service project
upon which he had been working for during the ten years prior to his arrest.

More details at
Compassionate Chaplaincy