crimethink
24th June 2017, 08:55 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/court-dismisses-charges-against-pro-life-activists-for-now/article/2008612
Even in famously abortion-friendly California there is justice for abortion foes. On June 21, the San Francisco [!!!] County Superior Court threw out 14 of the 15 felony counts that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had brought against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the anti-abortion activists who had made widely circulated undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials haggling and joking over the compensation they expected to receive for supplying the organs of fetuses aborted at Planned Parenthood clinics to for-profit “tissue-procurement” companies.
(...)
Indeed, if Daleiden and Merritt emerge from the Becerra prosecution relatively unscathed (they have already beaten similar charges in Texas in 2016 thanks in part to a legal technicality), it will be a victory for the kind of “citizen journalism” that the two practice. And all other kinds of journalism. As Staver and at least one law professor I interviewed for my earlier story said, the Daleiden-Merritt case represents the first time that anyone can remember that outright criminal charges (in contrast to a civil lawsuit) have been filed against anyone for allegedly violating Section 632. For this reason the Los Angeles Times, no friend of anti-abortion activists but aware of the implicit threat to newsgathering, called Becerra’s filing felony charges in March “disturbing overreach.” Hite’s ruling may signal that his overreach exceeded his grasp. California reliably Stands With Planned Parenthood, but it also still seems to stand for freedom of the press.
Even in famously abortion-friendly California there is justice for abortion foes. On June 21, the San Francisco [!!!] County Superior Court threw out 14 of the 15 felony counts that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had brought against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the anti-abortion activists who had made widely circulated undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials haggling and joking over the compensation they expected to receive for supplying the organs of fetuses aborted at Planned Parenthood clinics to for-profit “tissue-procurement” companies.
(...)
Indeed, if Daleiden and Merritt emerge from the Becerra prosecution relatively unscathed (they have already beaten similar charges in Texas in 2016 thanks in part to a legal technicality), it will be a victory for the kind of “citizen journalism” that the two practice. And all other kinds of journalism. As Staver and at least one law professor I interviewed for my earlier story said, the Daleiden-Merritt case represents the first time that anyone can remember that outright criminal charges (in contrast to a civil lawsuit) have been filed against anyone for allegedly violating Section 632. For this reason the Los Angeles Times, no friend of anti-abortion activists but aware of the implicit threat to newsgathering, called Becerra’s filing felony charges in March “disturbing overreach.” Hite’s ruling may signal that his overreach exceeded his grasp. California reliably Stands With Planned Parenthood, but it also still seems to stand for freedom of the press.