By Dave Andrusko
Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron
The judge in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell gave last minute instructions this morning to the jury of seven women and five men before it was to begin deliberations in the case of a man charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of third degree murder among a host of lesser charges.
(News came out today confirming that Fox News will air an hour-long special on what District Attorney Seth Williams has called Gosnell’s “House of Horrors.” The program will air Friday, May 3, at 9pm Eastern Standard Time.)
Yesterday we talked about the closing argument of Jack McMahon, Gosnell’s high-powered defense attorney. As he did the first day of the trial, McMahon portrayed Gosnell as a selfless do-gooder, the object of an “elitist, racist prosecution” and concluded by likening what McMahon wanted from the jury to the title of President John F. Kennedy’s book: a “Profile in Courage.”
McMahon insisted none of the babies Gosnell is accused of aborting alive and then murdering was, in fact, alive. All testimony to the contrary, he argued, confused the babies being alive with a last-minute “reflex.”
According to press accounts, Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron was no less passionate and much more factual. Here’s the lead of Elizabeth Harrington’s story written for CNSNews.com:
“’Are you human?’ Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron asked Kermit Gosnell during closing arguments in the abortionist’s trial on Monday.
“Cameron noted that during the six-week trial, ‘Mr. McMahon (the defense attorney) kept asking the witnesses, are you human?’ That question really should be asked of Gosnell, Cameron said, turning to look directly at the defendant: ‘Are you human?’ he asked.
“Gosnell stared right back and laughed.
“’To med these women up, to stick scissors in babies necks — he’s the one in this case that doesn’t deserve to be called human,’ Cameron said.”
Cameron rebutted each of McMahon’s arguments. For example, McMahon scornfully dismissed the notion that any of the babies could have been alive since Gosnell injected them with digoxin.
However Cameron noted that not only did Gosnell not always use the drug, sometimes it did not work, according to Sean O’Sullivan, writing for the (Wilmington, Delaware) News Journal.
“Staffers testified that Gosnell struggled to properly administer the drug and that ultrasounds showed some babies’ hearts still were beating at the time of the abortion.
“It did not matter if the babies that were delivered were ‘viable’ or would have survived long, Cameron said. If they were born alive — and if even one had breathing, motion or a heart beat indicating life — it was Gosnell’s duty to care for them or at least comfort them.
“He did neither, Cameron said.”
In addition, one of the babies Gosnell is accused of murdering by slitting their neck had no traces of Digoxin in its system, Cameron said.
One of the most dramatic and powerful witnesses during the five-week-long trial was Steve Massof, an unlicensed medical graduate who worked for Gosnell. He talked of performing abortions late at night before Gosnell showed up
“I felt like a fireman in hell,” he said. “It was raining fetuses.”
“[Gosnell’s] the captain of that hell,” Cameron told the court, according to Harrington. “It’s time for us to extinguish the hell he created.”
In his three-hour closing Cameron reminded the jury of what a stream of witnesses had testified to, including janitor Jim Johnson who said the toilet was constantly clogging up.
“You all know what that’s from, that’s from babies in the toilet,” Cameron said. “Maybe you’ve been desensitized by this case, but just the thought of using a plunger and having an arm and a leg come up,” Cameron told the jury.
Cameron recalled the death of Karnamaya Mongar. (Gosnell is charged with third degree murder in her 2009 death.) McMahon said it was a tragic accident and that Gosnell treated her no differently than thousands of other patients. But according to O’Sullivan’s account
“Cameron said Mongar’s death was the direct result of Gosnell’s ‘assembly line’ treatment of abortion patients where untrained staff administered a one-size-fits-all drug.
“As the medical examiner became aware of how the clinic operated, new information prompted the murder change, Cameron said.
“’You can’t be in Delaware when eighth-grade educated people are giving medicine. That is pure recklessness on the doctor’s part,’ Cameron said. Gosnell worked part time in Delaware at a since-closed abortion clinic, and one staffer had only an eighth-grade education.”
