Word: edelin
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Dates: during 1974-1974
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...lamentable that Judge James B. McGuire decided last week to send the abortion case against Dr. Kenneth Edelin to trial in Boston in January. If the nature of the hearings on the defense's dismissal motions is any indication, the trial will be circus-like and justice may prove prejudiced...
...neither of the two hearings on the motions has prosecutor Newman A. Flanagan displayed the warranted dedication to the law. His charge against Edelin is capricious and every statement he makes to clarify it makes the issue more confused. It is unclear what Flanagan says validates the manslaughter charge against Edelin--whether the fetus must have breathed, whether it must have been removed alive from the womb, whether it must have been over 24 weeks old, or whether it must have shown only a potential for life before it "died." The prosecutor has blithely left all these questions for Edelin...
...motions to dismiss, the defense took upon itself the burden of proof in attempting to show the judge that the fetus Edelin is accused of killing never lived. Precisely because prosecutor Flanagan had never attempted to rebut the evidence, the defense argued, the case should not go to court. The prosecutor failed to produce any reasoned refutation, but McGuire says Edelin must stand trial...
Judge McGuire might have anticipated such a motion when he heard preliminary motions in September and October. He also might have anticipated the vague and unsubstantiated case that prosecutor Flanagan seems intent on directing at Edelin in the course of a trial. It must be hoped now that the ultimate verdict will clear Edelin of a charge that should have been dismissed last week...
...prosecution claims that Edelin murdered a fetus that was at least 24 weeks old, in the process of an abortion last year...