Kevorkian archive opens as physician-assisted deaths rise On a video recorded by Kevorkian in 1993, Poenisch steadies Frederick's Lou Gehrig's disease-ravaged body as she signs a form requesting help to die "in the most humane, rapid and painless manner" possible. [...] Poenisch reads words just penned by her mother that convey her final, fervent, wish: "My tears should not be taken as an indication that I am in doubt." Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 for assisting in the 1998 death of a Michigan man with Lou Gehrig's disease. In October, California became the fifth state — following Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — where physician-assisted deaths are legal, and that's made proponents of right-to-die legislation optimistic about possible successes elsewhere. Others, like Poenisch, praise his trailblazing but believe his approach — wearing costumes and plugging his ears in court, once talking to reporters with his head and wrists restrained in a medieval-style stock — was detrimental to him and the cause. Poenisch said she hoped to find a deeper, fuller archive, including letters that she and others wrote to Kevorkian while in prison, and a journal he kept during his incarceration. Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian's attorney and friend, said people who have said he had the right message but was the wrong messenger are missing the point.