COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jurors began deliberating the murder case against Dr. William Husel shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Husel is charged with 14 counts of murder – accused of killing his patients through overprescribing medications like fentanyl and other sedatives.
Prosecutors acknowledge many of these patients were critically ill or near death but argue Husel’s drug orders were so excessive that they either outright killed or hastened the patients’ deaths.
Assistant Prosecutor David Zeyen reiterated his point several times during his closing arguments Monday – likening these deaths to “mercy killings” or “euthanasia” and saying that: “his motive could’ve been pure, but it is a crime to kill a dying person. It is not a defense.”
Husel’s legal defense team has argued it was the patients’ underlying medical conditions and the removal of life support that caused these patients’ deaths – not Husel’s drug orders.
“This is not a murder case and it's a not attempted murder to just try to get a charge to stick,” Baez said during his three-hour closing arguments on Monday.
But jurors are able to consider the lesser-included offense of attempted murder.
Judge Michael Holbrook made that clear when he went over the charges and read the jury instructions Tuesday morning.
If jurors find the state has failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, then they can consider the lesser-included offense of attempted murder.
The portion of the jury instructions that deals with attempted murder, reads like this:
“If you find the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the element of "cause" of the offense of murder, you should find the defendant not guilty of murder and consider the lesser included offense of attempted murder as contained in Count One of the indictment. Before you can find the defendant guilty of attempted murder, you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about … in Franklin County, Ohio, the defendant attempted to purposely cause the death of…” each patient in this case.
Part of Husel’s legal defense has been the “doctrine of double effect” - a medical doctrine or philosophy that in its simplest terms means “the good outweighs the bad.”
In this case, it refers to physicians’ ability to provide comfort care medication knowing that providing that medical procedure also comes with the risk of potentially hastening death. Husel’s legal defense team has argued that the doctrine of double effect should be considered as context in this case.
Prosecutors have argued that there can be two causes of someone’s death – arguing that just because the patients were near death, critically ill or “actively dying” as the defense has argued, it’s not a defense for giving large, excessive doses of medications that they argue killed these patients or hastened their deaths.
Jurors must now consider whether the state met its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
All of the patients in this case died between 2014 and 2018.
The patients – associated with each count in the indictment - are:
- Count #1 - Joanne Bellisari
- Count #2 - Ryan Hayes
- Count #3 - Beverlee Schirtzinger
- Count #4 - Danny Mollette
- Count #5 - Brandy McDonald
- Count #6 - Francis Burke
- Count #7 - Jeremia “Sue” Hodge
- Count #8 - James Allen
- Count #9 - Troy Allison
- Count #10 - Bonnie Austin
- Count #11 - James Nick Timmons
- Count #12 - Sandra Castle
- Count #13 - Rebecca Walls
- Count #14 - Melissa Penix
Around 2:30 p.m. the jurors raised a question to the court about articles that were referenced by a defense expert witness Dr. Joel Zivot.
Zivot testified on behalf of the defense and came to the conclusion that it was the patients’ underlying medical conditions and the removal of life support that caused their deaths, which mirrored the defense’s legal arguments throughout the trial.
The prosecutors and defense teams argued over how to respond to the question before deciding on a response that the particular articles they were curious about were not offered into evidence.
The court notified reporters that jurors plan to keep working until about 5 p.m. and then will resume their deliberations at 9 a.m. Wednesday.