McPAUL, Iowa (AP) — A southwest Iowa man has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting or participating in a woman’s suicide. The Omaha World-Herald reports 58-year-old James Allen Zingg, of McPaul, is charged with assisting in the January suicide of 47-year-old Gwendolyn N. Melloway. He was arrested in June. Authorities are charging Zingg under a seldom-used law that was spurred when Dr. Jack Kevorkian was prosecuted for helping terminally ill patients end their lives.

Prosecutors say Zingg made a suicide pact with Melloway. Zingg says the pair both ingested a lethal cocktail of pills, but he survived. He says it was Melloway’s idea to swallow the pills. Fremont County Attorney James Burger says the charge is justified. Zingg’s attorney declined to immediately comment on the case.