Leading pro-life advocates are demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor now that Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson is coming under fire after her office pursued a grand jury indictment against the pro-life investigators who uncovered the sale of aborted baby body parts at a Houston Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.
The Texas grand jury indicted David Daleiden and another pro-life activist, Sandra Merritt, behind the videos. Instead of prosecuting Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby parts, Daleiden was indicted for buying them.
Daleiden and Merritt were charged with one felony related to tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to buying human tissue. The felony charge was in reference to the use of a fake ID. If convicted, Daleiden faces 20 years in prison while Planned Parenthood officials face no legal consequences for their actions.
SIGN THE PETITION: Drop the Charges Against David Daleiden and Charge Planned Parenthood
But Anderson is under criticism over the fact that a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s office serves on the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood and Anderson also failed to prosecute an abortionist known as the Kermit Gosnell of Houston who snipped babies’ necks like Gosnell did.
That criticism is leading to calls for a special prosecutor to be appointed.
Live Action president Lila Rose also emailed LifeNews about the grand jury indictment.
“The district attorney’s office was asked months ago about recusing itself from this case because one of its prosecutors serves as a board member of the Planned Parenthood affiliate involved in the case. It is unacceptable that the office did not recuse itself to eliminate any and all questions of potential bias. A special prosecutor should be appointed now to review this entire investigation,” she said.
Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who also serves on the Board of the Center for Medical Progress, which released videotaped evidence against Planned Parenthood, told LifeNews.com a special prosecutor is needed because of the clear conflict of interest at the D.A.’s office.
He said “There are too many questions about the independence of the Harris County District Attorney’s office with a Planned Parenthood board member on hand and given the failure of a previous grand jury under Anderson to indict a Houston abortion provider despite ample photographic evidence and eye-witness testimony of late-term babies being born alive and intentionally killed. The public needs to be assured that an impartial investigation will be conducted on the facts and not on a personal political agenda.”
Meanwhile, conservative commentator rush Limbaugh blasted Anderson and her office for pushing ahead with indictments of the pro-life investigators while having a Planned Parenthood activists on staff.
“In a regular criminal investigation that is undercover, which is what the two people from the Center for Medical Progress, they essentially went in undercover. They were disguised as potential buyers. That is key here. In a regular criminal investigation that’s undercover, the police undercover operatives, the black bag operatives, the undercover agents and their undercover informants have immunity in the criminal transactions they are negotiating. Like if you go undercover to score big heroin deal you can’t get prosecuted for buying heroin in the process because you’re granted immunity as part of being an undercover agent, right? Makes sense?
“Well, what the prosecutor did here is essentially say journalists do not have this legal immunity to do undercover work as the cops do. You can’t just say I’m a journalist and go in there undercover and be immune from whatever criminal actions you engage in in order to entrap or ensnare your targets. Now, this is a guess. It is an analysis of what might have gone on, a rogue prosecutor who knows that journalists do not have legal immunity to do undercover work as the cops would have.”
