PHILADELPHIA – Alveda King, the niece of famed civil-rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., says she is dismayed by a judge's ruling to acquit Kermit Gosnell on four of the abortion murder charges against him.
King, who is director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life, is astounded because she says the prosecution proved its case over and over
The requirements for prosecutors Ed Cameron and Joanne Pescatore aren't complicated, she said.
"To prove the baby has been born alive, the baby has to have completely come out of the mother," King said.
"Then, and only one of these has to be proven, there has to be breathing or voluntary movement or some such evidence of life," King said. "For the defense lawyer to say the arm only moved one time and it was only one arm, or the leg only moved once and it was one leg. Or, there was only sound for a moment.
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"That only proves that these were voluntary movements in those babies, not involuntary movements," King said. "So there is according to the law that infanticide has occurred."
King also says that Gosnell should be found guilty because of his recklessness in dealing with the patients.
"The prosecution has demonstrated that there was always consciously a disregard for the women and the babies," King said. "The prosecution has shown that there are at least seven babies who died as a result.
"I believe there were many more who were injured, harmed, and killed by Dr. Gosnell and his staff's conscious disregard of all the women and those babies."
King was responding to Judge Jeffrey Minehart's ruling which acquitted Gosnell on the infanticide charge in the death of Baby B. Minehart also threw out the murder charges in the deaths of Babies "B", "C", and "G."
The trial will continue on counts of infanticide against Babies "A," "C," "D," "E," "F," and "G," and the four murder charges against Babies "A," "D," "E," and "F."
"I am praying for Dr. Gosnell and everyone involved in the abortion industry. I used to be pro-choice many years ago before the scales fell off of my eyes," King said. "So because Dr. Gosnell is the most visible tip of the iceberg today – he's the rule not the exception to the rule. He's visible evidence of the rule – that abortion kills babies, sometimes kills women, it hurts human beings.
"So much evidence is being given, and across America right now, there are abortion facilities that are killing babies, hurting women, sometimes killing women," King said. "They are being under-regulated and unregulated. A blind eye is being turned to the harm they're doing."
Gosnell's defense lawyer, Jack McMahon, defended his motion by saying that it was the duty of the prosecution to show malice. McMahon says the prosecution fell short.
"The testimony has to show malice and the testimony has not shown that Dr. Gosnell acted differently to the women who died from how he treated any of the others," McMahon said.
McMahon also argued that the prosecution didn't prove that Gosnell violated the 24-hour, informed consent rule.
Cameron said the prosecution has proven that Gosnell's actions "offend reasonable sensibility."
"All you have to do is look at the statute. The statute says that once the baby leaves the mother, it should be treated with dignity and respect as a human being," Cameron said. "Dr. Gosnell didn't do that. What he did offends common sensibility. He did not dispatch the babies with dignity; he put their body parts in a jar.
"All the statute requires is that there be a beating heart and voluntary movement. In each case, we showed that there was a beating heart and that there was voluntary movement," Cameron said.
Cameron adds that this was especially true with the case of Baby "C."
"Baby C had arms pulling. Lynda Williams invited people to come watch. She said, 'Hey look at this,' as she asked people to come look," Cameron said. "Williams pulled the arms, then Baby C pulled back."
Baby C was then taken from the room and killed.
Then there was Baby G. Cameron quoted clinic Dr. Steve Massof, who said, "The baby was laying on its side. I saw it breathe."
Cameron moved on to Baby E.
"Baby E was crying. It had a whine. To make a noise, it has to breathe," Cameron said. "It was a repeated course of conduct."
"The discovery of his horrific practices helped shed light on an abortion industry that has run amok without oversight or accountability for decades, and has prompted significant changes in abortion laws and attitudes toward enforcement in several states," he told LifeNews.
The trial will also continue for Gosnell's co-defendant, unlicensed doctor Eileen O'Neill. O'Neill is also charged with fraud by deception because she provided medical services and billed insurance companies even though she is not licensed to practice medicine in Pennsylvania.