"Dr. Death" granted parole but asks for even earlier release.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has served a little over eight years of his 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree murder, will be released on parole on June 1, 2007, according to Michigan prison authorities. However, the 78-year-old "mercy-killing" pathologist is petitioning Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm for mercy, for an even earlier release, based on claims of various health problems, including diabetes, hardening of the arteries, and vertigo. However, Kevorkian, who defiantly boasted of assisting in over 130 deaths, has shown no remorse or repentance for his actions.

The disability activist group Not Dead Yet, which opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, expressed disappointment over the parole announcement and predicted that after being released, Kevorkian "will show near-miraculous 'recovery' from his alleged grave medical problems." "He has announced that he plans to speak and write," the group's press release noted. "We expect him to suddenly show enough health and energy to make numerous media appearances and speaking engagements. We could be wrong, but we were suspicious his health problems were greatly exaggerated when his lawyer filed appeals for four years in a row claiming Kevorkian was essentially on the brink of death."

Kevorkian was finally convicted in 1999 for the 1998 assisted suicide of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old Michigan man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Youk's death was videotaped and shown on CBS' 60 Minutes. Based on Kevorkian's past favorable treatment by the major media, Not Dead Yet predicts that "Mike Wallace or Barbara Waiters can be expected to do a very sympathetic and biased interview with Kevorkian. They'll downplay his history of helping non-terminally ill disabled people commit suicide and portray him as some kind of martyr. They won't mention his advocacy of lethal experimentation on death row prisoners or disabled infants at all."