A grand jury in Ohio returned a 329-count indictment against Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, charging him with not only abduction and rape but also for the murder of several unborn babies whose miscarriage he caused by starving and kicking the mother.
LifeNews.com is reporting that the report, handed down by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on Friday, included two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of two unborn babies who belonged to Michelle Knight, one of the three women Castro kidnapped and held as sex slaves for nearly 10 years in his Cleveland home.
Castro allegedly impregnated Knight five times during the course of her captivity and used abuse to force miscarriages in all of her pregnancies.
According to Ohio law, “No person shall purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the death of another or the unlawful termination of another’s pregnancy.”
At the time of his apprehension, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty promised to seek murder charges against Castro. Local pro-life groups in Ohio were pleased that he kept his word.
“Our coalition is pleased that the prosecutor kept his word by following our urging to charge Castro with murder,” said Mark Harrington of the pro-life group, Created Equal.
“The grand juries’ decision to charge Castro with murdering two of the unborn children that Michelle Knight was carrying will hopefully bring them justice. These babies deserve the same protection that all pregnant mothers have. Despite the fact that Michelle Knight was not also killed in this instance is beside the point. We expect Castro to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for murdering these unborn babies.”
If Castro is convicted on these charges, prosecutors say he could very well face the death penalty.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the notorious abortionist who operated the West Philadelphia abortion clinic known as the House-of-Horrors received three consecutive life sentences for the murder of three infants who were born alive after an abortion.
“We believe that whether a child is in utero or ‘born alive’ — whether we call it fetal homicide or infanticide—it is a criminal action to take an innocent human being’s life,” said Attorney Samuel Casey, a pro-life advocate, to LifeNews.
“The mother’s consent (particularly when it is coerced or uninformed) should make no difference to the existence of the crime being committed. Whether the apparent motive is a commercial one (as in Kermit Gosnell’s case) or sexual abuse (as in Castro’s case), it should be just as criminal for a health care provider or a sexual deviant to kill a baby born or preborn because pregnancy is not a disease and induced abortion is never health care.”
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