10/01/03: City Tries to Block Concert Suicide Plan
Tue Sep 30, 8:57 AM ET
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Reuters) - City officials in St. Petersburg, Florida, passed a law on Monday banning public suicides in an attempt to prevent a rock band from carrying out a planned suicide at a concert.
The band Hell on Earth said on its Web site,
www.hellonearth.net, that a terminally ill member of the Euthanasia Society would commit suicide at the concert at an undisclosed location in St. Petersburg. The band said it planned to show the event on its Web site.
"This is about standing up for what you believe in and I am a strong supporter of physician-assisted suicide," band leader Billy Tourtelot said in a statement posted on the Web site.
"This performance will go in its entirety and it will be in St. Petersburg on Oct. 4," Tourtelot said.
The St. Petersburg City Council held an emergency meeting on Monday and passed an ordinance to ban public suicides. City officials are also seeking a court injunction to stop the performance.
The St. Petersburg-based band is known for its outrageous acts. At one concert, dead rats were put into a blender and some audience members drank the concoction.
The concert featuring the suicide had been scheduled to take place at the State Theater in St. Petersburg but the manager canceled it after he learned about the planned suicide.