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Assisted Suicide Charge Dismissed, People React

POTTSVILLE — Barbara Mancini of Philadelphia is no longer facing a criminal charge. Investigators accused the nurse of giving her 93-year-old father a let...

POTTSVILLE -- Barbara Mancini of Philadelphia is no longer facing a criminal charge.

Investigators accused the nurse of giving her 93-year-old father a lethal dose of morphine last year at his home in Pottsville.

She was charged with causing or aiding suicide.

Now, a judge has ruled there is not enough evidence a crime was committed..

Mancini was charged in August of 2013.

Motions to dismiss the case were presented in October.

Compassion and Choices, an organization advocating for end of life choices, praised the judge's decision calling it, "a victory for dying patients and autonomy at the end of life."

Not everyone agreed.

"I just disagree with what she did and think she should be charged," said Kyle Kaledas of Pottsville.

Family members said Joe Yourshaw, 93, was wracked with pain from hypertension, diabetes, and kidney failure.

The case sparked national controversy over assisted suicide.

In Pottsville, where Yourshaw lived and died, people remain divided over the issue.

"I'm against assisted suicide, we go to Catholic school and I think it's wrong. I think God has a will for everyone to die at different times, so that's my opinion," said Dylan Palamar of Pottsville.

"I think we all have a time to suffer, and there's no easy way out," agreed Kenny Rossi of Pottsville.

Jamie Ebert said if he were suffering, he would want help to die.

"I would hope someone would do that for me," said Ebert.

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