NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Well-known Nashville attorney and activist John Jay Hooker has died.
Hooker, who was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, filed a lawsuit challenging the Tennessee state law that makes it a felony to assist in suicide.
Davidson County Chancellor Carol McCoy dismissed the suit, claiming Hooker did not have legal standing to bring the action.
“They’ve got no right to tell me that, in my pursuit of my own peace and happiness, I can’t take my own life,” Hooker told News 2 after the ruling.
In November, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied a request by Hooker, who wanted to take his right-to-die case directly to justices.
He once told News 2, “I’m shaking my fist until the day I die.”