U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick dealt with procedural matters in the upcoming jury trial of undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Planned Parenthood is prosecuting them for recording conversations about the sale of human body parts that they claim were confidential under California law. Orrick stated on Tuesday that whether “videos exposed illegal conduct, or whether Planned Parenthood affiliates made a profit from selling fetal tissue, or whether there were any live births during abortion...not particularly relevant to these proceedings."The journalists' legal team planned to bring forth evidence and witnesses to prove several of those points and argued against this ruling. They say that these points are important to the case because California privacy law excludes recordings related to violent conduct. If a baby was born alive and then killed so that its heart could be sold to Stanford, that would be considered a violent crime and could theoretically acquit the journalists.
Orrick responded that these details, which apparently aren't considered proven, are "not as important or not important at all, as far as what is actually done." He said the only thing the jury will concern themselves with is, "were the defendants allowed to do the things they actually did." Click here for more.
