Judge bars rock group stage suicide stunt
A judge in Florida has barred a rock band from holding an onstage suicide during a performance this weekend to be broadcast over the Internet.
St Petersburg city officials asked Circuit Court Judge John Lenderman for the injunction after the group Hell on Earth announced plans to have a terminally ill person commit suicide during a show on Saturday night.
The judge had issued a temporary order on Monday blocking the performance and any advertising for it.
“We think it’s the correct legal decision, and it’s also the right thing to do,” Mayor Rick Baker said afterward. ”Using a suicide as part of a concert for purposes of entertainment value or for purposes of profiting is a sick concept.”
City officials said they had never found Hell on Earth leader Billy Tourtelot to serve him with an order to appear in court, and no one showed up on his behalf for yesterday’s hearing.
Tourtelot, 33, the son of a St Petersburg estate agent, had said earlier the band would defy a city law passed on Monday that makes it illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes.
Tourtelot said the suicide was intended to raise awareness about physician-assisted suicide, which he believed should be legal.
He said “a select few people” would attend the show at an undisclosed site in St Petersburg, and that it would be shown live on the band’s Web site. He has declined to disclose any details about the terminally ill person.
