French nurse gets more jail on appeal ( 2003-10-16 11:37) (Agencies)
An appeals court on Wednesday
upheld the conviction of a former nurse in the deaths of six patients between
1997 and 1998, and increased her original sentence from 10 years in prison to
12.
The prosecutor had sought a 15- to 18-year prison term. The three lawyers
defending Christine Malevre had asked the court to acquit her.
Malevre, 33, had been convicted in January of hastening or causing the deaths
of six patients with overdoses of morphine or potassium at a suburban Paris
hospital. She was acquitted in the death of a seventh patient in that trial.
Malevre "allowed herself to be overcome by the suffering of patients and her
own suffering," defense lawyer Michel Zaoui pleaded before the court. Her motive
was not to kill but "dangerous pity."
The appeals trial began two weeks ago just as France reopened a debate on
euthanasia following the death of a deaf, mute and paralyzed man after his
mother allegedly gave him a deadly dose of sedatives that put him in a coma.
Doctors then took the 22-year-old Vincent Humbert off a respirator. Humbert had
written a book pleading for the right to die and his mother made it known that
the two had a death plan for him.
However, testimony showed that in the case of Malevre, the nurse never
consulted with dying patients or their families before ending the patients'
lives. Her lawyers described her as "fragile."
Malevre began working at the Mantes-la-Jolie hospital in 1995, and her
excessive devotion to terminally ill patients began arousing suspicions in the
following year. An inquiry showed the number of deaths increased during shifts
Malevre worked.
She was placed under formal police investigation in 1998 in the deaths of 11
patients, although charges eventually were dropped in four cases from lack of
evidence.
