Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Marcus Silva first sued Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter – both friends of his ex-wife – along with Aracely Garcia in 2023, alleging that the three had helped her obtain abortion pills in July 2022, about two months after she filed for divorce. Silva asked a Texas district court to award him more than $1m in damages for their “criminal and murderous actions”. Abortion bans typically target providers, not patients, and Texas, like the vast majority of states, does not criminalize self-managed abortion. (Silva’s ex-wife was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.) However, abortion rights advocates feared that, even if the first-of-its-kind lawsuit was not legally sound, it would still intimidate people out of helping one another get abortions."
STORY: "Texas man drops lawsuit against women accused of helping ex-wife get abortion," by Carter Sherman, published by The Guardian, on October 11, 2024.
SUB-HEADING: "Marcus Silva asked court for $1m damages in case that was legally questionable but worried abortion rights activists."
GIST: "A Texas man who sued his ex-wife’s friends for allegedly helping her get an abortion dropped his lawsuit on Thursday after the case was settled.
Marcus Silva first sued Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter – both friends of his ex-wife – along with Aracely Garcia in 2023, alleging that the three had helped her obtain abortion pills in July 2022, about two months after she filed for divorce. Silva asked a Texas district court to award him more than $1m in damages for their “criminal and murderous actions”.
Abortion bans typically target providers, not patients, and Texas, like the vast majority of states, does not criminalize self-managed abortion. (Silva’s ex-wife was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.) However, abortion rights advocates feared that, even if the first-of-its-kind lawsuit was not legally sound, it would still intimidate people out of helping one another get abortions.
The case had been set to go to trial before Silva dropped the lawsuit. In court filings, Silva did not explain his reason for the decision, but a notice of settlement was submitted to the court. Carpenter told the Washington Post that no money had been exchanged as part of Silva’s abandonment of the lawsuit.
Silva was represented in the lawsuit by Jonathan Mitchell, a lawyer who masterminded the Texas six-week abortion ban that deputized ordinary people to sue one another over suspected illegal abortions.
“While we are grateful that this fraudulent case is finally over, we are angry for ourselves and others who have been terrorized for the simple act of supporting a friend who is facing abuse,” Noyola said in a statement. “No one should ever have to fear punishment, criminalization, or a lengthy court battle for helping someone they care about.”
“This case was about using the legal system to harass us for helping our friend, and scare others out of doing the same,” Carpenter added. “After two years of being entangled in Mitchell and Silva’s campaign of abusive litigation, we were ready to fight this baseless suit in court. But the claims were dropped because they had nothing. We did nothing wrong, and we would do it all again.”"
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/texas-abortion-pills-lawsuit
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
