Convicted Murderer Facing New Charges is Heart Transplant Recipient

A convicted Indiana murderer currently in jail charged with federal firearms violations and possession of child pornography is attracting new attention following the discovery that he is also a heart transplant recipient.

Joseph Nowicki, 53, is the latest illustration of the fact that the U.S. transplant system distributes scarce cadaver organs on the basis of medical priority, not non-medical social considerations.

Nowicki's situation came to light when his defense attorney asked the court to release his client, contending that his body is rejecting the heart he received three years ago at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Kennard P. Foster, after hearing federal prosecutors testify that local police consider Nowicki a prime suspect in the disappearance of a 19-year-old girl missing since June 26th, ordered him held in jail -- but told marshals to insure that he received his medicines.

Nowicki's record dates to 1962. In 1965, he fired 11 shots at his sister and brother-in-law, and was convicted of aggravated assault. In 1973, he was convicted of second-degree murder in a street shooting. In 1985, he was convicted of robbery.

But his record was not a factor when he received a heart transplant on July 12, 1999.

"Something's got to be wrong with that," said Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said. "(Nowicki) is a convicted killer. I'm not sure that's what these people wanted to do when they signed up to be a donor."