Ann Arbor Hospital Murders

The Ann Arbor Hospital Murders were the murders of 10 patients by unauthorized administration in their IV of a curare drug Pavulon in an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital during 1975. After a huge FBI investigation Filipino nurses Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez were charged with murder but only found guilty on poisoning and conspiracy charges. Public opinion was against prosecution of the nurses on the basis that they could have had only the most trivial of possible motives for conspiring to commit such extremely serious crimes, and the case was dropped after a retrial was ordered.

Homicides and Investigation

During a few months in 1975, patients at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan began suffering respiratory failure and sometimes dying with extraordinary frequency. In a single twenty minute period on one day in the middle of August, three patients required emergency treatment to save their lives, and the chief of anesthesiology, finding they responded to an antidote for a paralyzing drug, called in the FBI.[1] Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez were nurses recently immigrated to the U.S. The investigators found Narciso was on duty in the relevant ward during every poisoning, and she was identified by a patient as the nurse who injected something into his IV just before his breathing suddenly stopped.[1] Leonora Perez was also identified by a patient as having injected his IV just before his respiratory arrest occurred, but he--like the one who identified her co-accused--died before the trial.[1][2] The case against Narciso and Perez was considered by assistant U.S. Attorney General, Richard Delonis, "highly circumstantial", although the defense lawyers felt it was strong enough that they had to put their clients on the stand, where in the event they appeared evasive.[2] There was only one charge of murder considered by the jury with the other charges being of "poisoning".[1][2]

In a trial marred by accusations of racism, a man slated to be the lead witness for the prosecution (though dropped by the Federal prosecutor just prior to trial), referred to Perez and Narciso as "slant-eyed bitches" and that there was a nationwide conspiracy of Filipino nurses to murder veterans.[3] Racial tensions at the time were also running high due to high rates of immigration to the U.S. by Asian immigrants.[4] The two defendants were the primary (though not always the only) ones on duty during the poisonings.[5] The prosecution emphasized the regular propinquity of the defendants to poisoned patients. Crucial evidence came from a relative of the victims who testified one of the defendants had been in the room doing something to the bedside equipment just before he suddenly stopped breathing.[1][6] The significance of evidence that the defendants had been in the room shortly before was that the injections of Pavulon, according to the prosecutions experts, must have been administered only minutes before the victims suffered paralysis-and cessation of breathing.[7][1][2] There was an acquittal on the murder charge, but both Filipino Narciso and Leonora Perez were found guilty of three counts of poisoning and conspiracy to poison patients..[1]

Verdicts, appeal

Pacifico Marcos, president of the Philippine Medical Association and brother of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, headed a defense fund and called the verdict a "miscarriage of justice".[5] In February of the following year, a judge set aside the guilty verdicts ruling the jury (which had deliberated for 15 days and acquitted on the only remaining murder charge and some of the poisoning charges) may have been influenced by what amounted to prejudicial presentation of the prosecution case during the trial.[8] The new attorney general declined to mount another prosecution, reportedly because the American public were not behind the prosecution of the nurses, and the defendants were unlikely to make the mistake of exposing themselves to cross examination again.[1] Narciso and Perez had suffered as a result of their lengthy trial process. The prosecution of Narciso and Perez for the murders became a focal point for many protest groups and Filipinos, who united in their condemnation of the handling of the case and expressed support for the two nurses.[3]

Documentary

A documentary titled "U.S. vs. Narciso, Perez and the Press" was released by Michigan State University's "Sandbox" film production group in 2013 which features interviews with some of the participants (not with the nurses themselves) as well as archival news footage (which does show them).[9]

See also Toronto hospital baby deaths (another case in which nurses were accused of motiveless homicides).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Greg Stejskal (February 3, 2011), The Murders at Ann Arbor’s Veterans Hospital; What Went Right and What Ultimately Went Wrong in the Case, Tickle the Wire
  2. 1 2 3 4 Galang, M. 2003. Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images. Coffee House Press
  3. 1 2 Choy, Catherine (2003). Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino-American History. Duke University Press.
  4. ↑ Ngai, Mae. 2005. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton University Press
  5. 1 2 "Long Count to A Guilty Verdict". Time Magazine. July 25, 1977.
  6. ↑ Brian Lane. Encyclopedia of serial killers.
  7. ↑ Cheyfitz, Kirk (July 14, 1977). "Nurses Convicted in Poisoning Case Nurses Convicted in Poisoning Case". Washington Post.
  8. ↑ Pratt, Phillip. 1978. US. v. Narciso and Perez, Memorandum Opinion and Order Regarding Defendants' Motion for a New Trial p. 17.
  9. ↑ "Sandbox Films - Media Sandbox - Integrated Media Arts Program - College of Communication Arts & Sciences - Michigan State University".
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