in San Francisco.
By Operation Rescue Staff
San Francisco, CA — As the fourth week of the Planned Parenthood RICO trial against pro-life activists who exposed its participation in the illegal trafficking of aborted baby remains, Operation Rescue continues to be unable to share details of the trial because OR President Troy Newman is a defendant in this case.
However, Harry Mihet, an attorney with the Liberty Counsel who represents pro-life defendant Sandra Merritt, put out an update yesterday in an e-mail. We are reprinting it for your information.
From Harry Mihet:
Despite some limited victories last week in presenting some key evidence to the jury, the defense team remains seriously shackled in defending Sandra Merritt and her colleagues against Planned Parenthood’s revenge “baby parts” lawsuit in San Francisco.
The first major handicap we have is the inability to play for the jury the actual videos over which Sandra and her colleagues are being sued.
With one exception (Dr. Nucatola’s “crush below, crush above” 4-minute video), the Jury is still NOT being allowed to see ANY of the HUNDREDS of hours of video evidence obtained by Sandra and her colleagues, which evidence demonstrates beyond any doubt that Planned Parenthood was violating federal laws with its baby parts sale scheme.
Instead, Planned Parenthood witnesses are allowed to gush over how great and wonderful PP is, and how it helps poor people get cancer screenings and HIV tests. Planned Parenthood is allowed to show only the most innocent parts of these videos (the pleasantries, the “hellos” and the “goodbyes”) to show the jury that the videos were filmed “illegally.”
AND, even worse, Planned Parenthood is allowed to tell the jury that the videos were “deceptively” or “misleadingly” “EDITED” to provoke outrage against PP. BUT WE ARE PROHIBITED FROM PLAYING THE VIDEOS TO SHOW THAT THIS IS A LIE.
A SECOND major handicap imposed on the defense in Planned Parenthood’s revenge baby-parts trial is that we are forbidden from showing the jury the EXTENSIVE evidence that David, Sandra and their colleagues obtained BEFORE the recordings took place about Planned Parenthood’s atrocious crimes in selling baby parts for profit.
As just one example, David and Sandra can DISCUSS “in a couple of sentences” a Stanford study involving Langendorff perfusions which required BEATING HEARTS to be obtained from Planned Parenthood.
But we CANNOT SHOW the jury the actual study, nor can we call a Stanford PhD to the stand to tell the jury what the study means, and to tell the jury that SHE TOLD DAVID WHAT THE STUDY MEANS BEFORE THE RECORDINGS TOOK PLACE.
And guess what Planned Parenthood’s response to our evidence is? That’s right! They say it’s superficial and unconvincing.
Our hands are tied, and the deck is stacked.
Please continue to pray for Troy and all the other pro-life defendants and their legal teams, who are up against Planned Parenthood’s high-priced lawyers and other conditions that are making the defense of these pro-life heroes a difficult task.
