MUSKOGEE, Okla. (KFSM) — A federal jury on Thursday (June 6) convicted an Oklahoma man of kidnapping his step-daughter in 1997 and holding her hostage for the next 20 years while he raped and abused her.
Henri Michele Piette, 63, was found guilty in U.S. District Court of kidnapping and travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile.
“The victim endured two decades of horrific abuse by the defendant. Her courage led her to escape and rescue her children and allowed investigators and prosecutors to seek justice on her behalf. Ultimately her courage ended the defendant’s reign of terror,” said U.S. attorney Brian J. Kuester.
“I know this verdict cannot heal the countless wounds inflicted by the defendant. It should prevent him from ever inflicting more.”
Rosalynn Michelle McGinnis, now in her 30s, managed to escape from Piette in 2016 after being held captive by him for two decades in Mexico, according to KFOR.
5NEWS is only identifying McGinnis, a sexual assault survivor because she has spoken publicly about her case.
McGinnis’ mother was in a relationship with Piette in the 1990s when he began sexually abusing McGinnis while she lived in Wagoner County.
Henri Michele Piette
She told authorities that when she was 11, Piette took her to a van to marry her, having his oldest son, who was 15 at the time, perform the ceremony.
Piette’s son confirmed to investigators that his father had asked him to perform the ceremony. He said the “ceremony” consisted of him asking if Piette and McGinnis took each other in marriage.
Despite two attempts to escape, Piette was able to find the family. He kidnapped McGinnis from Poteau, then moved her throughout Oklahoma and eventually to Mexico, according to KFOR.
McGinnis said Piette beat and sexually assaulted her almost daily for years. He fathered eight children with her that span.
McGinnis told People magazine that she took eight of her nine children to the U.S. Embassy and obtained passports so they could enter the United States.
Once she made it to the United States, she immediately started meeting with federal officials and provided them with statements on what happened.
Federal officials interviewed Piette’s older children who confirmed they had witnessed him sexually abuse McGinnis.
Authorities were finally able to track Piette down in September 2017 when he visited the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City attempted to obtain a U.S. Passport.
“The FBI Oklahoma City Division, and the special agents who investigated this crime, hope that the guilty verdict delivered against Henri Piette will bring some sense of closure to those he inflicted immeasurable mental and physical abuse upon for over 20 years,” said Steven D’Antuono, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Division.
“By bringing Mr. Piette to justice, the victims of his heinous acts can now begin the process of healing. The FBI is honored to have been a part of this long-term investigation alongside our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners.”
Piette faces up to live in federal prison. A sentencing hearing hasn’t been set.
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A 20-year-old college student in the San Francisco Bay Area used Snapchat’s gender swap filter to expose a police officer allegedly trying to hook up with an underage girl, NBC reports.
The filter, which allows people to see what they would look like as the opposite gender, has become immensely popular among Snapchat users, despite its problematic stereotyping.
San Jose Police Department arrested Robert Davies for contacting a minor to commit a felony.SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT
Ethan, who did not disclose his last name in fears of retaliation, told NBC Bay Area that he was looking to catch pedophiles because his friend had been sexually assaulted as a child. But even he didn’t think he would end up catching a police officer. “I was just looking to get someone,” he said. “He just happened to be a cop.”
He set up his Tinder profile with his gender-swapped photo as a 19-year-old with the name Esther. Then, he matched with San Mateo police officer Robert Davies.
“I believe he messaged me ‘Are you down to have some fun tonight?’” Ethan said. “And I decided to take advantage of it.”
According to CBS, Ethan later matched with Davies on another app called Kik, which has a reputation as a shady platform for millennials and teens. Ethan and Davies then connected on Snapchat, as well.
Posing as Esther, Ethan told Davies that she was 16 and asked if it would be a dealbreaker. Davies said it wouldn’t.
According to screenshots shared by NBC Bay Area, once Ethan revealed she was 16, Davies said, “Yeah that might be an issue.” But he continued to engage in the chat even after learning Esther was a minor. Ethan said the messages soon “got a lot more explicit.”
“Through the messages, I would just—on purpose—get these little bits of information about him so it would be easier for the police to track him down,” Ethan told NBC Bay Area.
He would screenshot the chats on airplane mode, fearing that if Davies was being notified that his messages were being captured, he might block Ethan.
After Ethan tipped off Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers, San Jose detectives launched a month-long investigation into Davies, culminating in his arrest last week, Gizmodoreported. Davies has since been put on paid administrative leave and charged with communicating with a minor to commit a crime.
In a statement, San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer said this “is in no way a reflection of all that we stand for as a Department, and is an affront to the tenets of our department and our profession as a whole.”
Ethan has told NBC Bay Area that this was his first and last bust, but people on social media are applauding him.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear filters.
— Brian (@Protodude) June 11, 2019
With great filters, comes great responsibility
— KeyLow (@KeyLow920) June 11, 2019
use the filter for good
— Proud Bulba (@ProudBulba) June 11, 2019
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Before he was known as one of the dozen victims killed in Friday’s mass shooting, Keith Cox was known as a hero.
Christi Dewar was one of the city employees at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center in Building 2 that was spared from the rampage — and she says she owes it to her late friend, Cox.
It began with popping sounds. Dewar says she thought it was the sound of construction. Special Coverage: Virginia Beach Mass Shooting
But then Dewar saw people running down the halls, yelling “active shooter!” She and seven other people began to run too. That’s when they came across Cox.
“He said ‘get in Lori’s office now. Barricade the office. Get in there.’ and I said ‘come on Keith’ and he said ‘I gotta check on everybody else.’ And we closed and locked the door and we pushed the cabinet up against the door and it was not too long after that DeWayne tried to come in and he fired four shots. And I looked out and two of the shots had almost come through the cabinet, the back of the cabinet,” said Christi.
Virginia Beach Police identified the shooting suspect as longtime city employee DeWayne Craddock, 40, who had submitted his resignation earlier that day.
After the gunfire stopped, Dewar says police came to escort them out of the building.
“They took us down the south stairwell. There was a body there and I didn’t know who it was, couldn’t tell. There’s so much blood everywhere and I started just shaking and crying, just heaving,” said Dewar. “The officer said ‘you’re strong, you can do this. You need to step over and come with me.’ I said ‘I can’t.’ He said ‘yes you can.’ I found out later that the person I had to step over was one of my friends Missy.”
After the shooting, Dewar reached out to Cox’s parents. She wanted to let them know how brave their son was.
Dewar said, “If it wasn’t for him there would have been several more people that had perished. He was a hero. A guardian angel that walked this earth that didn’t deserve to leave us so soon.”
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An American woman died of respiratory failure in her Dominican Republic hotel room days before a Maryland couple was found dead of the same cause at the same resort, a hotel staff member told ABC News.
Miranda Schaupp-Werner was found dead at the Grand Bahía Príncipe hotel in La Romana on May 25 — five days before Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were found dead in their hotel room.
Schaupp-Werner, 41, “died suddenly and inexplicably in her hotel room…after arriving and having a drink from the in-room mini-bar,” family spokesperson, Jay McDonald, said in a statement to ABC News. She was healthy before she died, McDonald said. She had arrived in the Dominican Republic the day she died, McDonald added.
Her husband, Daniel Werner, was with her when she began experiencing physical distress and collapsed, McDonald said.
Schaup-Werner died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, according to the hotel. An autopsy performed on the couple determined that they died of the same causes, according to the Dominican Republic National Police.
The family became alarmed after learning of the similarity of Holmes’ and Day’s deaths and the possible implications, such as whether they’d been poisoned, and has contacted the State Department to request an investiation, McDonald said.
“No toxicology report was done as part of the cause of death inquiry, nor were Mrs. Shaup-Werner’s glass and drink tested,” McDonald said.
A spokesperson for the hotel declined to comment further on Miranda Schaupp-Werner’s death.
The U.S. Department of State confirmed to ABC News that Schaupp-Werner was an American. ABC News has reached out to the State Department for additional comment on her death.
Local police said they are aware of Schaupp-Werner’s death but have not opened a criminal investigation into it because her death does not appear to be suspicious.
Police are investigating the deaths of the couple, as they were initially considered suspicious since Holmes complained of chest pains the day he died but refused to see the doctor that was called, police said.
The couple’s bodies showed no signs of violence, police said.
Holmes and Day arrived at the hotel on May 25 and were scheduled to depart on Thursday, police said. They were found unresponsive by hotel staff after they missed their scheduled check-out time on Thursday, according to a statement from the hotel.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a State Department official said on regards to Holmes’ and Day’s deaths.
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“Who is this alien?” is Mashable’s enduring series about the exceptionally peculiar critters that inhabit a relatively small, ocean-dominated world in the outer realms of the Milky Way galaxy, called Earth. Many of these lifeforms, you’ll find, are quite alien.
Hiding in the nooks and crannies of dead piles of Indonesian coral is a pudgy fish, wholly covered in swirls of orange and white. Seen from the right perspective, the critter might be mistaken for a vibrantly colored brain.
But amid the explosion of whirling lines are cryptic, aquamarine eyes and a camouflaged frown. Inhabiting shallow seas around the tropical Ambon Island, this creature was mostly unknown to the scientific world until 2008.
It’s the psychedelic frogfish.
“It’s an incredibly vibrant frogfish,” said Rachel Arnold, a marine scientist who coauthored the research that identified the kaleidoscopic creature as a new species.
Many frogfish — a stocky group of fish notorious for violently gobbling their prey — are also known for blending into their undersea worlds. Some look like sponges, and others like seaweed, noted Arnold. The psychedelic frogfish — or Histiophryne psychedelica — certainly takes camouflaging to an extreme level. “They do aggressive mimicry,” she said. The fish take on an appearance similar to species of tropical coral with whirling, orange patterns. “It reminded me of many patterns of corals I have seen,” said David Hall, an underwater wildlife photographer who captured the first shots of the frogfish.
A psychedelic frogfish in Ambon, Indonesia.
This allows the lumbering, ungainly fish to hole up in the shadowy coral as unassuming prey comes near. At the right time, perhaps when naive prey swim near or inside a fateful cavern amid the coral, the psychedelic frogfish will promptly “swallow them whole,” said Arnold.
Curiously, when Arnold traveled to Ambon to see these astonishing critters, hiding out amid coral rubble some 10 to 15 feet beneath the ocean surface, the psychedelic frogfish didn’t match the surrounding environment, which was devoid of the brain-like, orange corals that the psychedelic frogfish often resembles.
It’s unknown why the psychedelic frogfish live in these particular dark holes, then, and also why the fish seem to vanish from their Ambon homes for extended lengths of time, only to turn up once again.
“They’re still a bit of an enigma,” said Arnold. “It shows up and disappears for long periods of time.”
What’s more, the fish are fantastically-patterned, but never easy to find here — even when they’re known to be around. “If I had to search for these fish on my own, I would never have found them,” said the photographer Hall, noting that he relied upon a local guide who had previously spotted a psychedelic frogfish.
Though relatively new to science, the psychedelic frogfish are well-known to Indonesian locals — though before Hall no one had a camera in the right place at the right time.
A pair of psychedelic frogfish in Ambon, Indonesia.
“It’s the local people that really knew about its existence,” said Arnold. “The local people really understand more about this fish than we do.”
Yet with limited time diving around these elusive frogfish, Arnold and her team deciphered a good deal about the species. Most known frogfishes have a lure hanging from their head, which they hold out to attract prey, said Hall. But the psychedelic frogfish doesn’t carry a lure. It just waits for unwitting prey to pass by.
“The local people really understand more about this fish than we do”
True to its name, the psychedelic frogfish often “hops” around to get places, using its fins to push off the bottom of the seafloor. Curiously, when egg-bearing females emerge from their dark holes, they wrap their dorsal (back side) and tail fin around a peach-colored clutch of some 200 eggs, looking for safe harbor to place the priceless sacks of life.
Leaving hundreds of eggs on the coral-littered seafloor, however, poses modern-day problems. “Conservation-wise, it’s a pretty big red flag,” explained Arnold, noting that it would be easy for collectors — perhaps eager to capture the hallucinatory fish — to sleuth out the eggs and over-harvest the species.
Each psychedelic frogfish — while all almost fantastical and brilliantly patterned — is markedly distinct. Though, amid the profusion of lines and swirls, their unique line expressions might be indiscernible to the human eye.
“Their striping is like their fingerprint,” said Arnold.
Source: http://bit.ly/2vtj6F1
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Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise were just teens when they were coerced into confessing to a rape they didn’t commit.
The “Central Park 5” case was one of the most publicized of the 1980s: five teens were falsely accused and convicted of raping a woman in Central Park and it would take years before they were exonerated.
Now, 30 years later, Ava DuVernay’s new four-part Netflix film “When They See Us” has prompted a reexamination of how the teens, mere boys, became victims of a vicious and false narrative that landed them behind bars.
Trisha Meili was a 28-year-old investment banker out for a jog in Central Park on April 19, 1989. She was attacked by a serial rapist, Matias Reyes, but that wouldn’t be proven until years later following his confession from prison. Reyes, who was later convicted of raping multiple other women including a pregnant victim he also killed, hit Meili in the back of the head with a tree branch. He then dragged her off the jogging path and into the woods where he violently raped her, beat her with a rock, tied up with her own shirt and left her for dead.
Investigators chose to focus on a large group of mostly African-American boys who happened to be in the park around the same time of the rape. People had made 911 calls to police that night regarding groups of teens harassing people in the park.
As “When They See Us” shows, investigators honed in on five boys in particular: Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise. They all maintained their innocence and said they were coerced into confessing. The new series depicts the boys as confused, thinking that they could go home if they told police what they wanted to hear. The DNA found at the scene did not match any of theirs. Meili testified twice during the trial, under the identity “the Central Park Jogger,” and stated she didn’t remember the attack.
The boys, who came to be known as the “Central Park 5,” were sentenced to between seven and 13 years in prison for the attack. Their case became highly publicized and sensationalized, so much so that even Donald Trump weighed in on it. The five were exonerated in 2002 after Reyes confessed. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau withdrew all charges against the boys, by then men, and their convictions were vacated. Wise, who was still in prison, was released.
In 2014, the city of New York settled with the five wrongly convicted men for $40 million. Additionally they filed a $52 million lawsuit for extra damages, a suit that is still reportedly ongoing. Three of the members, Salaam, Richardson and Santana were given honorary diplomas from their former high schools in 2017, according to the New York Times.
So where are the “Central Park 5” now and how are they doing individually?
Raymond Santana
After spending five years behind bars, he is now the father of a teen daughter, according to “When They See Us.” He lives in Georgia but still appears to have strong ties to where he grew up. He founded his own apparel company called Park Madison NYC. Some of the apparel features the names of the “Central Park 5.” Musical artist Nas sports the gear in one of the company’s posts. One of the shirts even features a mugshot of himself. A post of that shirt states, “I created this shirt and called it the ‘Raymond Santana Tribute Tee’ because I wanted to recognize the ups and downs, the road I traveled, to become the man that I am today.”
Santana has pushed for criminal justice reforms in New York, including trying to mandate that all interrogations be recorded, according to AM New York.
Kevin Richardson
After five and a half years behind bars, Richardson is now married and the father of two daughters, whom he lives with in New Jersey. He travels to speak about his experience and advocates for changes in the system, according to the Innocence Project.
“There was such a media frenzy, during that time . . . we were physically scared to come outside,” he recounted during a 2017 talk. He and Salaam talked about wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform at a Fashion Institute of Technology talk the same year.
Antron McCray
After six years behind bars, McCray is married and a proud father of six. He lives with his family in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the first of the five to leave New York City, according to “When They See Us.”
He has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. However in May, he did an interview with The New York Times, “I’m damaged, you know? I know I need help. But I feel like I’m too old to get help now. I’m 45 years old, so I’m just focused on my kids. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do. I just stay busy. I stay in the gym. I ride my motorcycle. But it eats me up every day. Eats me alive. My wife is trying to get me help but I keep refusing. That’s just where I’m at right now. I don’t know what to do.”
He also told the publication he still struggles with complicated feelings towards his father, Bobby McCray, who testified in 1990 that he instructed his 16-year-old son to confess to a crime he knew he didn’t do.
Yusef Salaam
After spending seven years behind bars, Salaam also now resides in Georgia, where he lives with his wife and 10 children. He does public speaking, focusing on pushing for policy change in the criminal justice system. His website, Yusef Speaks, states that he “has traveled all around the United States and the Caribbean to deliver influential lectures and facilitate insightful conversations as he continues to touch lives and raise important questions about race and class, the failings of our criminal justice system, legal protections for vulnerable juveniles, and fundamental human rights.”
Salaam is a published poet and has been the recipient of several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama in 2016 and an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Anointed by God Ministries Alliance & Seminary in 2014.
“Determined to educate the public, Yusef eagerly shares his story with others. In speaking out against injustice, he conveys the importance of continuing one’s education—whether formal or otherwise,” his site states. “He also touches on the effects of incarceration and the disenfranchisement of economically disadvantaged people and its devastating impact on both their families and the community at large.”
Kharey Wise
Wise was the eldest of the five and appeared to have been given the worst “deal” out of all of them. Because he was 16, he could be interrogated without a guardian present and, as the new Netflix series depicts, he may have been coerced the most. He may have also been particularly vulnerable, despite being the oldest. In Sarah Burns’ 2011 book “The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One Of New York City’s Most Infamous Crimes,” she wrote that he “had hearing problems from an early age, and a learning disability that limited his achievement in school.” Plus, he wasn’t even a suspect to begin with. He only went down to the station, as the series depicts, to support his friend Salaam. He spent most of his 14 years behind bars in adult facilities, including the infamously rough Rikers Island.
After he was released, Wise changed his first name from Kharey to Korey. He is the only member of the five who chose to stay in New York City. He both established and funded the Korey Wise Innocence Project at Colorado Law School which offers pro-bono legal counsel to wrongfully convicted people.
“You can forgive, but you won’t forget,” Wise in the 2012 Central Park Five documentary. “You won’t forget what you lost. No money could bring that time back. No money could bring the life that was missing or the time that was taken away.”
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A 600lb drug dealer had to be sentenced in an ambulance that was designated as a courtroom because moving him from the vehicle would ‘endanger his health and well-being,’ an Ohio judge said.
Kirk Lenell Smith, 42, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and being a felon in possession of a gun on Wednesday outside the Hamilton County Courthouse. The sentencing occurred at the loading dock.
Smith is believed to weigh more than 600 pounds and the decision to hold the proceedings outside were deemed the easiest by Common Pleas Judge Tom Heekin.
Kirk Lenell Smith, 42, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and being a felon in possession of a gun on Wednesday outside the Hamilton County Courthouse
‘Moving Kirk Smith from the ambulance would endanger his health and well-being,’ Heekin said as he read from a document, Cincinnati.com reports.
He was sentenced to two years in prison (mugshot from 2009)
He was sentenced to two years in prison (mugshot from 2009)
Heekin sentenced Smith – who had a blood oxygen monitor on his left index finger – to two years in prison.
The judge had one foot inside the ambulance as he spoke with Smith, with his court reporter setting up at the edge of the ambulance.
Smith was only able to give brief answers that consisted of one or two words. And when asked if he wanted to make a statement, the man is said to have attempted to but was unable to speak.
According to Sgt. Ryan Hudson with the Cincinnati Police Department, police first got information that Smith was selling drugs from his Hartwell residence in April 2018.
‘We received a Crimestoppers tip and some information from the community that an individual up on Rosewood in Hartwell — the activity was consistent with drug trafficking,’ he explained to Local 12.
The ambulance took Smith from the courthouse to the prison after he was sentenced
The ambulance took Smith from the courthouse to the prison after he was sentenced
Police raided Smith’s home in April 2018 and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own
Police raided Smith’s home in April 2018 and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own
Police raided Smith’s home and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own. They could not physically arrest him but did read him his rights.
‘It was obvious that there were people running for him because he’s so large, as I mentioned 600 to 700 pounds, he wasn’t able to move around freely,’ said Hudson. ‘It made it kind of tough on us to maneuver or almost get him out of the house that particular day. In fact, it was impossible.’
A co-conspirator – named Isaac Collins – was convicted of trafficking in marijuana.
Smith was taken straight to prison from the courthouse.
They could not physically arrest him at the home but did read him his rights
They could not physically arrest him at the home but did read him his rights
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Glaciers have lost more than 9 trillion tons of ice since 1961. Glaciers lost more than 9 trillion tons (that’s 9,625,000,000,000 tons) of ice between 1961 and 2016, according to new research. The loss led to a 27-millimeter increase in global sea levels over this period, researchers found
Source: http://bit.ly/2Vycmo3
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Verónica Aguilar (right) continued her preliminary hearing on whether there’s enough evidence to send her to trial for the murder of her 10-year-old son Yonatan (left).
The disturbing case of the California mom who allegedly sedated her special-needs son and locked him in a closet for three years, causing his death, was back in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday.
Verónica Aguilar, 42, continued her preliminary hearing on whether there’s enough evidence to send her to trial for the murder of her 10-year-old son Yonatan.
The boy was found dead Aug. 22, 2016, after his stepfather called police. Authorities say little Yonatan showed signs of severe malnutrition and neglect.
In testimony Tuesday, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department said Yonatan weighed only 34 pounds at the time of his death.
“I saw a very gaunt, frail-looking child, who at that time to me looked like a 5-, 6- or 7-year-old boy,” LAPD Det. Abel Munoz testified, according to ABC 7.
Aguilar allegedly told the boy’s stepfather she sent Yonatan back to Mexico for treatment and then somehow successfully concealed the boy’s presence in the family’s one-bedroom house in Echo Park.
Sister is questioned about her dead 11 yr old brother Yonatan: “Are you happy that he is dead? “ Answer“No.” “Are you SAD that he is dead?” A – “No.” She recounts troubling behavior. The child eating ants. More ahead about Yonatan being kept in a closet.@ABC7Courts pic.twitter.com/25eNy2eJ8h— Miriam Hernandez (@abc7miriam) June 19, 2019
Stepdad Jose Pinzon testified this week that he had no idea the boy was still in the family home and that his wife would “cry a lot,” ABC 7 reported.
He claimed he never saw any signs of the child because he worked 18 hours a day and slept in an area separate from his wife and the other kids in the house, according to ABC 7.
Pinzon also testified he was shocked and despondent when his wife finally told him the boy was dead in the bedroom closet.
Aguilar allegedly fed Yonatan an alcohol-based cold medicine that made him sleepy and easier to deal with, the news station said.
When the hearing concludes, a judge will decide whether Aguilar should face a jury in the case.
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A new drug has been approved by the FDA for patients with treatment-resistant depression. The drug is called esketamine — it’s a chemical cousin to an illegal …
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“Here we go again,” wrote US District Judge Carlton Reeves, who had previously ruled against Mississippi’s 15-week abortion law in November.
Reporting From
Washington, DC
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Mississippi on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new law that largely bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks.
“Here we go again,” wrote US District Judge Carlton Reeves, who previously ruled against Mississippi’s 15-week abortion law in November after concluding it was unconstitutional.
Reeves wrote that the US Supreme Court had “repeatedly held” that women have the right to choose to have an abortion before the fetus is viable. A fetus wasn’t viable at 15 weeks, he wrote, which meant it wasn’t viable at six weeks either. He granted a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the law while the case went forward.
“By banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, S.B. 2116 prevents a woman’s free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy,” Reeves wrote. “This injury outweighs any interest the State might have in banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.”
A spokesperson for the Mississippi attorney general’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Mississippi is one of five states to pass a fetal heartbeat law. Judges in Iowa, Kentucky, and North Dakota previously have blocked abortion bans in those states from taking effect. A lawsuit in Ohio is pending, and reproductive rights groups have vowed to file suit over a law in Georgia. None of these laws have taken effect yet.
Anti-abortion advocates see litigation over laws such as the one passed in Mississippi as vehicles to convince the Supreme Court to reconsider the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established that women have a constitutional right to abortion. Lower courts remain bound by Roe in the meantime, however.
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Friday challenging a law passed in Alabama that, if it takes effect in November, would be the strictest abortion law in the nation — it makes it a crime for health care providers to perform all abortions unless the life of the women is in “serious” risk.
Reeves, who was confirmed to the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in 2010, has been openly critical of the Trump administration and Senate Republicans, a rarity among federal judges. As BuzzFeed News reported in April, Reeves delivered a speech at a law school in April calling the Trump administration a “great assault on our judiciary” and comparing the president’s criticism of the judiciary to tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists.
He blasted the White House and Senate Republicans for the lack of diversity among Trump’s judicial nominees, saying they were “not stumbling unaware towards a homogeneous judiciary.”
Source: http://bit.ly/2Qp4tMI
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