The criminal trial against Sandra Merritt was scheduled to begin tomorrow. But God had other plans.

Sandra is the undercover journalist whose reporting exposed shocking details from representatives of Planned Parenthood and organ procurement companies about their baby organ trafficking operation. Read on to learn about the status of Sandra’s trial and the new development. It’s all in God’s perfect timing. — Mat

Sandra Merritt was scheduled to begin criminal trial tomorrow, November 3, but the trial has been moved to 2024. Normally, I am not a fan of delays, particularly in a case like this one that has dragged on for years. However, God’s perfect timing is at work, even in this delay.

When this case began in 2015, the State of California filed 15 felony charges against Sandra Merritt — the first undercover journalist in California history to be criminally charged for undercover reporting.

Liberty Counsel managed to get seven of those charges dismissed. However, the remaining eight charges could still land Sandra in prison for years.

But a delay in this trial’s timing allowed a breaking development to come to fruition — one that might end this case for Sandra once and for all.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in Project Veritas v. Schmidt that Oregon’s ban on recording of conversations violates the First Amendment right to free speech and is invalid.

California’s recording law is substantially similar to the Oregon law that was struck down. California’s law should suffer the same fate as Oregon’s unconstitutional statute. Sandra’s case should, therefore, be dismissed.

As a result, we have asked the San Francisco state court to dismiss ALL remaining charges against Sandra on the grounds that California’s recording law also violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Sandra’s undercover videos exposed Planned Parenthood aborting babies and harvesting their organs. Former California attorneys general — Kamala Harris and Xavier Beccera — now in the Biden administration, filed 15 criminal charges against Sandra for doing what journalists have always done. Even the Los Angeles Times editorial board slammed the state for this unprecedented act that will affect every journalist.

Sandra exposed abortionists and organ procurement staff admitting to the sale of human organs and even the dissection of babies — some of whom, one expert said, had to be ALIVE when the heart was extracted!

What Sandra did was NOT a crime. Not one Planned Parenthood doctor or official was ever charged for the crimes they admitted to in Sandra’s undercover videos — like intentionally altering the abortion procedure to harvest intact organs and thus making the abortion even more dangerous for the woman. Yet, Sandra is the one facing years in prison and a 16-million-dollar judgment in a civil case brought by Planned Parenthood.

Sandra’s only hope is her representation by Liberty Counsel.

Sandra Merritt’s case is the most expensive case in Liberty Counsel’s history. While this trial has been delayed, the new development of a Ninth Circuit ruling in a case that involves the virtually identical recording law gives us much room for hope. However, the work to protect Sandra from these politically motivated charges will continue.

Please pray for the outcome of this new motion we just filed. Since the criminal charges were largely based on California’s recording law, and since the same federal court of appeals governing California just ruled that Oregon’s law violates the First Amendment, the case against Sandra should be DISMISSED!

We need YOUR HELP to fight for justice. Praise God, a special Challenge Grant has been established to DOUBLE the impact of every donation to our legal fund. Please, give generously today.

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

TAKE ACTION

Planned Parenthood is trying to do an end run around the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, which overturned 50 years of baby butchery under Roe v. Wade. If passed, HR 15 will make ALL abortions — even late-term and homicidal partial birth abortions — a federal right. Fax Congress NOW to BLOCK Planned Parenthood’s attempt to make abortion up until birth a federal right. Tell Congress to VOTE NO on HR 15! And sign the petition.

Sources:

“Liberty Counsel Asks Court To Dismiss Merritt Criminal Case.” Liberty Counsel, October 26, 2023. https://lc.org/newsroom/details/102623-liberty-counsel-asks-court-to-dismiss-merritt-criminal-case.