Gourgen Yanikian manner of death natural causes
Trial and sentencing
Yanikian pleaded not guilty to two charges of first degree murder. Although over the course of the trial he openly conceded that he had caused the deaths of the men, he insisted that he was "not guilty" of any crime. Yanikian insisted that what he did was "destroy two evils," as the victims were "not human" for him. Yanikian admitted that he conceived the assassination plan in April 1972, and meticulously implemented it over the intervening months between that time and the date of the actual homicides on January 27, 1973. He had originally planned to carry out the homicides in the consular offices, but changed his mind upon visiting the offices where he observed the presence of numerous employees who "might try to be heroes and get hurt."In an interview with reporters in a court anteroom he slammed his hands down on the table and declared that other people "have had their Nuremberg but we have not." Yanikian's defense counsel, headed by defense attorney James T. Lindsey, attempted to bring in survivors of the Armenian genocide to testify as to the trauma of the experiences, as part of a defense strategy of depicting Yanikian as having "diminished mental capacity," but these motions were denied in court. After Yanikian's death, District Attorney David Minier wrote, "Looking back, I regret that I did not allow the genocide to be proven. Not because Yanikian should have gone free, but because history's darkest chapters — its genocides — should be exposed, so their horrors are less likely to be repeated."Armenians hoped Yanikian's trial would provide a vehicle for proving the massacres in a court of law, while there were still surviving witnesses, but District Attorney Minier didn't agree. Only Yanikian took the Armenian genocide witness stand, accompanied by his friend and interpreter, Santa Barbaran Aram Saroyan, the uncle of famous author William Saroyan. He concluded by saying that he killed the Turkish diplomats as representatives of the "government that had massacred his people." Yanikian's defense was based entirely on his claim of "diminished capacity". However, the jury did not find this to be convincing, because it was clear from his testimony that he understood he was taking the lives of two human beings and that he did so because he considered it justified.Yanikian was sentenced to life in prison on July 2, 1973. A California Court of Appeal declined his appeal and ruled that his "ability to deliberate and to premeditate his crime was demonstrated by his own testimony of the elaborate preparations pursuant to a plan which was executed with logic and precision. Defendant's testimony showed the plan was initiated many months prior to its execution and involved the use of a bait to lure the consular officials to the place chosen by defendant." Despite objections from the Turkish government, Yanikian was paroled on January 31, 1984, because of poor health, and transferred to a Montebello convalescent hospital. He died of a heart attack one month later at the age of 88.In 2019 the remains of Gourgen Yanikian have been moved from the US to Armenia, and buried at Yerablur Pantheon in Yerevan on Sunday, May 5.
cause of death mode of death method of death way of dying circumstances of death