Convicted murderer wants taxpayers to pay for sex-change operation

Robert Kosilek was convicted of strangling his wife in 1990. Now known as Michelle, Kosilek is serving a life sentence in Massachusetts.

For the last year, he has been fighting the state in federal court, trying to convince a judge to order the government to pay for a sex-change operation. His lawyers say by refusing to pick up the tab for the surgery, corrections officials are subjecting the 58-year-old inmate to cruel and unusual punishment.

"I would not want to continue existing like this," Kosilek testified, according to the Associated Press.

The wire service says its review of court records shows that the Correction Department has spent more than $52,000 to procure expert testimony from doctors who say Kosilek doesn't need the $20,000 operation.

"Anybody serving a sentence is deprived of certain choices in his life," John Moses, the prosecutor in Kosilek's murder case, told CNN back in 2002. "He was 41 years old when he killed Sheryl Kosilek. He didn't try to get a sex change operation at that time. Now he's 53 years of age, and he wants the state to pay for that?"

USA TODAY ran a wire story last year about this and other cases in which transgendered inmates are seeking sex-change surgeries.
source:blogs.usatoday.com