Nation - Wisconsin When is help criminal? Inmate on trial for helping cellmate hang himself

By Ryan J. Foley Associated Press Writer WAUPUN, Wis. (AP) -- Inmate Joshua Walters called out for help. "I think my celly's dead!" he shouted to guards at a state prison in eastern Wisconsin. His cellmate of three weeks, a 20-year-old convicted killer named Adam Peterson, was hanging from a noose made out of a bed sheet tied to their bunk bed. A note tucked in the waistband of Peterson's pants apologized to the family of the stranger he had stabbed to death a year earlier. Peterson, who nearly killed himself months before at a county jail, succeeded that Saturday night in January 2009 before he could be sentenced to prison for life. But prosecutors say the cellmate who appeared shocked at Peterson's death was the one who encouraged it. They say Walters assisted Peterson -- even tying the noose -- and shouted for help only after he had watched his cellmate hang for an hour. Walters is scheduled to stand trial June 8 on an assisted suicide charge and could face up to 10 years in prison. For jurors, the crux of the four-day trial will be deciding when help is criminal. Or as Walters allegedly put it to another inmate: "Can you get in trouble for helping someone kill themself?" Peterson had been suicidal for months after Jan. 28, 2008, when he wandered into the Madison home of Joel Marino, an environmentalist and medical device salesman, and stabbed him to death with a paring knife. Peterson didn't know Marino but later told his father he was desperate for money, and that robbing and killing Marino made sense at the time. He was arrested months later. He was put on suicide watch after his father warned authorities he had tried to kill himself sometime after the stabbing. As he awaited trial, Peterson attempting to hang himself in the shower with his pants, but an inmate alerted a deputy. The two freed Peterson from the ligature that had suspended him off the ground. Suicide was still on his mind when he entered the state prison after pleading guilty to Marino's murder. His twin, Eric, wrote him a letter listing reasons why he shouldn't kill himself. Still, Peterson's parents thought things were looking up for him. He told them he enjoyed access to the gym and library, and they planned their first prison visit where they hoped to hold hands and hug. Peterson was pronounced dead hours before they were to arrive. Walters told a detective Peterson had been "one of the best cellies" he ever had, but was depressed on days when he hadn't taken his medicine and was quiet the day of the suicide. Walters and Peterson "had it all planned out," Quednow testified during a preliminary hearing. The law Walters is accused of violating says that it is illegal to assist another person in taking their life. Dodge County District Attorney William Bedker must prove Walters "in some method or manner helped or aided" Peterson in committing suicide, and intended to do so. Timothy Quill, an expert on physician-assisted suicide at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, said Walters may not come across as sympathetic to jurors. If he wanted to help his cellmate, he should have helped him get more mental health treatment, he said. "I can't see of a way this could be ethical, much less legal," he said. But Daniel Blinka, a former prosecutor and law professor at Marquette University, said prosecutors could find the allegations difficult to stick. It is notoriously hard to "prove what gets said and done in prison," and their case relies heavily on an inmate whose credibility is expected to be attacked. Published: Tue, Jun 1, 2010

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