Retired doctor plead guilty to manslaughter in New York assisted suicide death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Stephen Miller

Stephen Miller (85) plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of Doreen Brodhead (59) who died in November 2023 at the Super 8 hotel in Kingston New York. Philip Pontuso reported for the Hudson Valley Times Union on September 4 that:

Stephen Miller, 85, entered his plea before Ulster County Judge Bryan Rounds on Tuesday, with his wife looking on. Under the terms of his plea deal, he was sentenced to five years’ probation, which he will serve at home in Tuscon, Ariz. His attorney said Miller is infirm and does not want to die in prison.

Miller was arrested earlier this year on second-degree manslaughter and assault charges under a provision of New York law that permits manslaughter to be charged for aiding another person’s suicide. According to court documents, on Nov. 8 last year, Miller picked up Doreen Brodhead at her Kingston apartment and purchased a nitrogen gas tank at a nearby gas distributor. They then drove to the Super 8 motel in town, where the pair enacted a plan to end Brodhead’s life.

Marlene Lenthang reported for NBC news on February 6, 2024 that Stephen P. Miller, of Tucson, Arizona, a retired doctor and advisory board member with the group Choice and Dignity, was arrested and charged with manslaughter and assisting a suicide in New York. Lenthang reported that:

The investigation started shortly before noon on Nov. 9, when police responded to a report about an unconscious and unresponsive person at a Super 8 on Washington Avenue in the city of Kingston, about 100 miles north of New York City, Kingston police said in a statement Friday.

First responders found a person who initially appeared to have died by suicide alone in the motel room, police said.

But further investigation led to evidence that a second person had been present who “contributed to or assisted in the suicide,” the statement said.

An investigation by police and the Ulster County district attorney’s office led to an arrest warrant’s being issued for Miller citing second-degree manslaughter under the state penal code regarding a person who "intentionally causes or aids another person" to die by suicide.

Miller has received a light sentence for manslaughter by assisting the suicide of Doreen Broadhead. I am aware that Miller is 85-years-old but he took the law and a life, in his own hands. Miller is an assisted suicide lobby activist.