A Year After Arrests, Final Exit Network to Go to Trial

By Aimee Levitt Wed., Mar. 10 2010 at 2:04 PM

Categories: Follow That Story

In February 2009, the four members of the Final Exit Network were arrested on charges of helping a Georgia man end his life. Yesterday, after more than a year of waiting, the four were finally indicted by a Georgia grand jury. They will be arraigned April 1.

Jerry Dincin, Final Exit's president, told Associated Press that he's "glad it's moving along" and that the group plans to put up billboards in New York and California that read, "Good Life. Good Death. Your Choice."

In a feature story last April, Riverfront Times wrote about the case of the so-called "Georgia Four" and the sting operation staged by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) that led to their arrest.

The GBI was looking into the death of a man named John Celmer, who had lost his jaw to cancer. Celmer's family maintained that the cancer had been treated and Celmer was merely depressed.

The sting was part of a multi-state investigation of Final Exit and its practices that included a police raid on the south St. Louis home of Dalton Baker, the network's treasurer. Police seized Baker's computer, but did not arrest him.

Since the Georgia arrests, Final Exit has not assisted in any suicides, though it continues to offer support to people with terminal illnesses who want to end their own lives.