Doylestown man knew his wife was completing suicide. He didn't intervene. Was it a crime?
His wife planned to end her life before cancer beat her to it.
Her health rapidly deteriorating, the 83-year-old Doylestown Township woman one day last month, when she was home alone, got into her car, closed the garage door and turned the car ignition.
Several hours later, her 90-year-old husband returned home and heard the car running inside the closed garage.
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What the husband did next prompted a police investigation to determine if he had assisted in his wife’s apparent suicide — a crime in Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office announced that no charges would be filed. Here is what authorities say happened and why no crime occurred.
What police say happened inside the couple’s home
The police investigated the incident because the man found his wife comatose and barely alive, authorities said. When he found her, authorities said, he did not turn off the engine or call 911.
Later, when he returned to check on his wife, she had no pulse, authorities said.
He told police the couple discussed his wife's intentions to end her life and she had been in hospice.
Doylestown Township police officers responded to the home the next day, and found the garage door open and the woman dead in the car. The vehicle was not running. The key fob was in the front center cupholder.
The investigation found the woman died the night before, she had been researching doctor-assisted death options and suicide and she was, at most, a few weeks from death, the DA press release said.
An autopsy found the amount of carbon monoxide combined with the woman’s fragile health state resulted in her death.
When is assisting someone in suicide a crime in PA?
Assisting in a suicide has been part of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code since 1973 and it specifically notes that survivors of suicide pacts can be charged and convicted.
Between 2015 and 2021, 29 people in Pennsylvania were convicted of homicide/causing in suicide, and most were sentenced to incarceration, according to data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.
Under the law, a person can be charged in either of two ways: as criminal homicide for intentionally causing someone to kill himself by force, duress or deception or for aiding suicide, by intentionally assisting another person to complete suicide or if through their behavior it causes someone to attempt or take their life.
In 2021 former Gov. Tom Wolf signed “Shawn’s Law,” which increases the penalties for those convicted of causing or aiding in suicide when the person who died is under 18 or has an intellectual disability.
In 2014, Bensalem police charged a man who survived a suicide pact with his mother with homicide in her death, a case that attracted national attention over its right-to-die implications.
A Bucks County judge dismissed the homicide charge and the man pleaded guilty to aiding a suicide and related charges. He was sentenced to time served.
Why the Doylestown husband not charged
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office found that the husband did not assist or cause his wife’s death. He also had no legal obligation to attempt to save her life when he found her near death, according to the press release.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, 24-hour help is available through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The lifeline provides free and confidential support and crisis resources.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Doylestown man cleared of involvement in wife's suicide. What we know
