Three murder charges against Kermit Gosnell have been tossed out by the Judge.
After hearing impassioned arguments from attorneys on both sides of the Kermit Gosnell capital-murder trial Tuesday, a Philadelphia judge threw out three of the seven first-degree murder charges Gosnell faced for allegedly killing fetuses born alive at his abortion clinic.
Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart also tossed out all five counts against Gosnell accusing him of corpse abuse for storing the feet of aborted fetuses in plastic containers in his now closed Women’s Medical Society clinic.
Also dismissed by Minehart was one count of infanticide – the intentional killing of an infant. All other counts against Gosnell, 72, will be decided by the jury, the judge ruled.
One of the murder charges dropped was of the 28-week old “Baby B” who had been found in a freezer.
This doesn’t mean that Gosnell will escape conviction on the other counts, and in fact I would be shocked if he walked.
Still, I can’t help but be saddened that we live in a society that bases a murder charge on the technicality of whether an unborn baby had taken a breath at some point after being delivered from its mother. If we can’t take a look at this picture below and ALL conclude that the death of this child cries out for justice, then we are simply lost.
(EXTREMELY STRONG CONTENT WARNING)
Image via William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection.
Mr. Zummo-
What a sorry mess this is.
Souls are crying an Everest of tears.
after my initial gasp and revulsion at the treatment of an innocent life as if it were a piece of animal flesh (didn’t Charles Manson et al yell “pigs” as they were carving up adult bodies?) my mind went to the gospel wherein Christ warns that the time will come when people will say “blessed are the barren”. Well, this is what one must do to be “barren” by “choice”. See how the murky middle “if you don’t like abortion,don’t have one” crowd are squirming. James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, who is at best an agnostic, has written 2 !! columns condemning Gosnell and questioning his support of choice and even likens it to slavery. That’s something at least, I guess. If he can change a few minds…..
“They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones”.
I’ve been reading this blog for quite a while now but this is my first post.
The image displayed would cause the most hardened combat vet to shed a tear.
As a recent convert to the Church (going on 5 years), it’s things like this that remind me how far I have to go yet before I can even sniff anything resembling sainthood. How I’m supposed to find love and forgiveness for these people is beyond my simple sensibilities. Since becoming Catholic in the midst of the current state of things, I find myself repeatedly confessing the sin of anger and hatred as I try to work out an acceptable response to evil of this degree. So far, a combination of prayer, Confession, Mass and a couple of rounds on a heavy bag seem to work. I someone has some helpful, comforting words, my ears are heart are open to them.
It is a disgusting, vile place we find ourselves in these days……
“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”….how does one respond to abortion using these words???
J.A.C.
Luke 6:31 is your quote.
Please continue through to passage 38 and I believe your answer will come.
Chapter six is the beatitudes.
It is no small thing that you uttered the quote.
Please read the whole chapter and tell us how we should apply the abortion injustices to these holy words.
In peace and humble service.
Matt Pierce: I still had my jaw on the ground from the horror of seeing that picture when I read your post. One of my lifelong problems was anger and forgiveness. I found help, so much help, by listening to a CD by Deacon Dr. Bob McDonald put out by Lighthouse Media. Link: http://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/speaker/deacon-dr-bob-mcdonald. This CD changed my entire life! I am no longer plagued by anger and I have learned to forgive, not easy but with prayer is possible. I’m in tears as I write this. For the poor little murdered soul who is pictured on this site and in humility for the grace God has given me by delivering me of the sin of anger. I highly recommend a listen or 2, or 6. I am praying for you. Pax Christi. Susan
[…] Galeazzi, La Stampa/VI “Transcending” Abortion in the Gosnell Trial – Collin Garbarino, FT A Matter of Seconds to Determine the Sanctity of Life – Paul Zummo, TAC From Tolerance to Coercion – Paul Zummo, Catholic Stand Knowledge: All Truth Is […]
Sliding moving goalpost definition: No longer birth, but first breath. How horrible.
Regarding a moving goalpost, if it’s breathing that defines personhood the judge would have to conclude that no murders can ever take place. Once they stop breathing they are no longer people and can’t be murder victims.
Even a child knows that the baby in the womb is a person. My four year old has been talking incessantly about babies being in Mommy’s tummy. She asks about what she did before she was born, and if we loved her before she was born. Sometimes when she plays she’ll crawl inside something and say she’s a baby who is not born yet. It takes an awful lot of indoctrination to overcome what a child already understands at four.
I am crude.
I am not eloquent.
I say —- the Left.
The leadership of our Catholic Church in the past four decades has played a part in the division of what it means to be Catholic, to the tune of the most pro-death president in our Nations history. Catholic light helped this to happen.
I’m sorry.
I don’t want to say vile things, however we do hold some of the blame….not putting our Bishops to task….to say enough is enough!
You can Not be Catholic and support pro-abort politicians.
We reap the whirlwind.
Get ready.
Courtesy of of the land of the free and the home of the brave…
“Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick”. (Chesterton)
Judges who try to be clever demean their very stations following the likes of so called intelligent people like Peter Singer who teaches bioethics at one of your so called pretigious Universities – Princeton. The man firmly believes that even when the fetus does develop a capacity to feel pain – probably in the last third of the pregnancy – it still does not have the self-awareness of a chimpanzee, or even a dog.
The judges on the bench probably missed the ‘opportunity ‘ to be lectured by Singer, and I shudder to imagine the likes of those coming through Princeton who may find themselves on the bench in due time – how much more insane, fanciful and jestingly clever will they be on determining life?
Re Orphan Daughter
Here is the current link to the CD by Deacon Dr. Bob McDonald: http://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/anger-and-forgiveness
These innocent souls cry out to God for justice! We all have to answer for our sins, but I certainly would not want to answer for those depicted in that horrible photograph! God help our country!