Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who was released on parole last year after serving eight years for second-degree murder, reportedly will run for Congress in a hotly contested House race.  A local paper reported on March 12 that Kevorkian had obtained the paperwork that he would need to get his name on the ballot.

Kevorkian was involved in the deaths of well over 100 people in the 1990s, deaths he characterized as assisted suicides.  (He is shown here rather gleefully posing with the apparatus he invented for that purpose.)  In 1998, he was charged with and convicted of murder in Michigan.  He was released last June.  As some of you may be interested to learn, the Constitution does not prohibit a convicted felon from serving in Congress.  It only requires that you be at least 25, a U.S. citizen, and that you reside in the state you plan to represent, which of course Kevorkian has been doing for at least the last eight years or so.

Kevorkian plans to run as an independent, joining the race between GOP incumbent Joe Knollenberg and Democrat Gary Peters.  His platform will reportedly focus on prison reform, bringing integrity back to government, and not helping kill people (at least, not personally).  Ruth Holmes, Kevorkian’s "longtime jury consultant," who did pretty well until that last outing, was quoted as saying that "Jack is in great spirits and he intends to do this.  He just hopes for some honesty in government."  According to Holmes, Kevorkian needs to collect 3,000 signatures by mid-July in order to qualify for the ballot.

According to this 2005 report, Kevorkian has shopped a book manuscript tentatively titled "The Life of Dr. Death," and a movie version was planned.  Producer Steve Jones reportedly said Ben Kingsley was at the top of his "short list" of actors who he hoped might play Kevorkian.  According to the Internet Movie Database, a movie called "The Kevorkian Chronicles" is currently in production, produced by Jones and directed by Barbara Kopple, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker whose prior work also includes "High School Musical: The Music In You."  (Ben Kingsley is not mentioned.)

Kevorkian’s sudden interest in running for public office is probably coincidental.

Link: Huffington Post