"Abortion clinic workers guilty in deaths" October 28, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Two abortion clinic workers pleaded guilty yesterday to third-degree murder in deaths at a Philadelphia clinic where seven babies were allegedly killed with scissors and a patient died from an overdose of painkillers....
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FLASHBACK:
"Abortion doctor may face death penalty" March 03, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors notified a Philadelphia doctor charged with killing a patient and seven babies at his abortion clinic that they intend to pursue the death penalty against him.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 70, ran a filthy West Philadelphia medical practice that served as a pill mill by day and an abortion mill by night, a grand jury concluded in January after a two-year investigation.
The multiple deaths and tender age of the babies — allegedly killed with scissors after being born alive — are the aggravating circumstances that warrant the death penalty for Gosnell, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said yesterday.
Defense lawyers have suggested that Gosnell, his wife, and eight other defendants who worked at the clinic treated poor women and minorities when no one else would....
And therefore the conduct was justified?
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"Fifth abortion case suspect pleads guilty" November 11, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - A woman initially hired to clean instruments at a Philadelphia abortion clinic has pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree murder in the deaths of a newborn baby and a woman who died after an anesthesia overdose.
As part of her plea agreement with prosecutors, Lynda Williams also agreed Wednesday to testify against the operator of the clinic, Dr. Kermit Gosnell.
Williams was one of 10 people charged in a shocking grand jury report that alleged viable, live-born babies were routinely killed at Gosnell’s clinic by having their spinal cords severed with scissors.
At the end of the hearing, a prosecutor told the teary-eyed Williams she did the right thing by pleading guilty, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The grand jury report described filthy, inhumane conditions at the clinic, which served poor and immigrant women....
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What other depravity is lurking in the state of Pennsylvania.
"3 accused of abusing disabled adults" October 17, 2011|By Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Three people have been charged after the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste, police said yesterday.
Officers were investigating a report of squatters in a building Saturday when they found three men and a woman in a 15-by-15-foot room behind a steel door that was chained shut. The subbasement room resembled a Cold War-era bomb shelter and contained a makeshift bed, mattress and sheets, said Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman....
Federal charges could also be added, Lieutenant Raymond Evers told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We’re going to find every crime possible in the crime code to put on these individuals,’’ Evers said....
I wish they would say that about bankers.
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"Discovery of captives points to fraud" October 18, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Dozens of pieces of identification and power of attorney documents have been discovered after a Philadelphia landlord found four mentally disabled adults locked in the basement of his building, a discovery that points toward a wide-ranging fraud scheme, police said yesterday.
Investigators are still processing the documents and reaching out to authorities in multiple jurisdictions while they try to find the family of one of the victims rescued Saturday from what police called deplorable conditions, Lieutenant Ray Evers said.
Evers said Linda Ann Weston is suspected of running a longstanding fraud operation. Authorities say Weston and two other suspects may have been holding the four people found in the basement hostage and collecting their disability checks.
“Without a doubt, this is just the beginning of this investigation,’’ Evers said.
Police said the four mentally disabled adults were rescued from the basement of the northeast Philadelphia apartment building on Saturday after the landlord shined a flashlight behind a steel door that had been chained shut. One victim had been shackled to the boiler, police said....
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"Woman accused of locking 4 in basement escaped previous scrutiny" October 19, 2011|Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - A lack of accountability and follow-through by police and government agencies may have contributed to the plight of four mentally disabled adults authorities say were locked in a basement while a convicted murderer stole their Social Security checks.
Where is the government snooping when you really need it?
Police in Philadelphia and West Palm Beach, Fla., missed opportunities to help one or more of the victims while the woman charged with orchestrating the scheme was legally disqualified from cashing the victims’ government disability checks because of her criminal past.
WTF?
Linda Ann Weston, 51, was charged Monday with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and other offenses after her landlord stumbled on the four adults, all weak and malnourished, in a dank, foul-smelling boiler room Saturday. One man was chained to the boiler.
Also charged were Eddie “the Rev. Ed’’ Wright, 50, whom Weston described as her boyfriend, and Gregory Thomas, 47.
The three remained jailed yesterday....
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Related: 2 more youth in basement case under protection
"Philadelphia prosecutors drop push to execute Abu-Jamal; New sentencing hearing would be difficult, they say" by Timothy Williams New York Times / December 8, 2011
Prosecutors in Philadelphia announced yesterday that they had halted the state’s effort to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal, the death row inmate convicted of killing a police officer 30 years ago, whose subsequent legal case based on claims of innocence have received international attention....
I'm always happen when killing is avoided.
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Related: Ten Reasons Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent
Mr. Abu-Jamal will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, said Seth Williams, the district attorney for Philadelphia.
“This has been a very, very difficult decision,” Mr. Williams said at a news conference, adding that he believed Mr. Abu-Jamal was guilty of the murder and should be executed. “The sentence was appropriate. That would have been the just sentence for this defendant.”
In April, a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Abu-Jamal because jurors had received potentially misleading instructions during his 1982 trial. In October, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Mr. Williams said Wednesday that the appeals court ruling — and others that have spared Mr. Abu-Jamal’s life over the years — had led him to drop his pursuit of the death penalty, in part because witnesses are no longer available. He said he made the decision after discussing it with Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Daniel Faulkner, the slain police officer.
During his long stay on death row, Mr. Abu-Jamal, 57, a former Black Panther and radio reporter, became a vocal and — to some — convincing advocate of his own “Free Mumia” movement. That cause became particularly prominent around college campuses, where students collected donations for his legal defense fund and sold buttons and posters carrying images of his pensive face and long dreadlocks beneath that slogan. The Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine performed at a benefit concert on his behalf in 1999, and a suburb of Paris named a street after him in 2006.
Rage was probably the last antiwar band.
The case has been played out repeatedly in court and the news media, and found a place in popular culture....
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Who can trust the Pennsylvania court system?
"Former head of youth centers jailed" November 05, 2011|Associated Press
SCRANTON, Pa. - The former owner of two for-profit juvenile detention facilities was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme that led the state Supreme Court to vacate the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before a now-jailed Pennsylvania judge.
Robert Powell pleaded guilty in 2009 to concealing a felony and an accessory charge in the so-called “kids for cash’’ scandal.
Powell, 52, testified earlier this year that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to former Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan in return for their support of his two private juvenile detention centers.
He said the judges extorted more than $725,000 from him after they shut the dilapidated county-run detention center and sent juveniles to his center outside Wilkes-Barre and to a sister facility in western Pennsylvania....
Powell was given credit for cooperating with the government. The businessman and lawyer wore a wire and recorded incriminating conversations with Conahan and Ciavarella, leading Conahan to plead guilty. Powell offered crucial testimony in Ciavarella’s February trial and wore a wire against a third judge in an unrelated case....
“Mr. Powell’s cooperation was vital to the success of this investigation and the prosecutions that resulted from it,’’ US Attorney Peter Smith said outside court yesterday.
Prosecutors sought a sentence of 12 to 18 months. Powell’s attorney, Joseph D’Andrea, said his client deserved an even more lenient sentence - probation, or at the most 12 months - because he helped prosecutors make their case.
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Also see:
Trial of Pennsylvania judge in kickbacks case set to begin today
US wraps up kickback case vs. judge
Pa. judge convicted in kickback case
Related: Pennsylvania Frees Child Prisoners
"Pa. school sued for rejecting boy with HIV" December 02, 2011|By Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A private boarding school connected with the Hershey chocolate company says it was trying to protect other students when it denied admission to a Philadelphia-area teenager because he is HIV-positive....
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"Pa. pulls ad that links drinking to rapes" Associated Press / December 9, 2011
An ad meant to warn young adults about the links between heavy drinking and rape has been pulled by Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board.
Critics said it was another example of suggesting victims are to blame for rape.
The ad featured an image of a woman’s legs on a bathroom floor with her underwear pulled down to her ankles, and the words: “She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t say no.’’
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Globe terminated that piece.
