Legal Ruling on Patricia Rosier 1986 Case
Legal Ruling on Patricia Rosier 1986 Case
Patricia Rosier died January 15,1986 with the help of her husband Peter Rosier. She was 43 years old and a mother of two. Her husband Peter was a prominent physician in Fort Myers Florida. He was indicted for first degree murder by Lee County grand jury 10 months later.
Patricia had been diagnosed in April 1985 with lung cancer. Which eventually moved to her brain. Her husband felt that there was a lawsuit of malpractice, as he believed she should have had the x-rays six months earlier (Oct. 1985)
Dr. Rosier admitted in an interview with a Fort Myers NBC affiliate, WBBH Channel 20 that he helped his wife end her life. He admitted in his manuscript ”I gave her two injections of morphine... I inserted four morphine suppositories into the rectum of my love.” Peter was challenging the laws of euthanasia as he had seen other doctor’s help people from their suffering. But they were never prosecuted. He never thought that Peter would get anything more than a slap on the wrist. But the state’s prosecutor chose to go for murder one and the electric chair. Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt chose together to take this case. It was a case of a dying woman who had fought a very hard battle with cancer, and her loving husband who would do anything to see her suffering stop. But in our judicial system if you know someone or you happen to get the right defense attorney, who happens to be in good with the system, things can go your way.
Peter was born in Long Island New York and was what Fort Myers considered a liberal New York Jew. And to use Tom Wolfe’s great phrase Dr. Rosier was “The Great White Defendant.” He was intelligent, rich, arrogant and opinionated. Peter and Patricia moved to Fort Myers in 1973. He was the chief of pathology at Lee memorial Hospital and maintained a private medical practice and was extremely profitable. They definitely lived the good life. He was despised in Fort Myers for not keeping his mouth shut and for suing Lee Memorial hospital and a fellow physician. The news media tried to...