{"id":2630,"date":"2008-11-03T10:28:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T10:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/the-small-white-casket.html"},"modified":"2008-11-03T10:28:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-03T10:28:00","slug":"the-small-white-casket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/the-small-white-casket.html","title":{"rendered":"The small white casket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours before we cast our votes, here’s a sobering reminder of what is at stake, from Florida Catholic<\/a>: <\/p>\n

More than two years after her ignominious death at an abortion clinic, baby Shanice Denise Osbourne was laid to rest at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

Her small white casket was escorted by an honor guard of Hialeah police officers and Knights of Columbus. She was buried in the cemetery\u2019s children\u2019s section after a funeral service at Worldwide Church of Christ in Pompano Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

Father Dominic O\u2019Dwyer, pastor of St. Malachy Parish in Tamarac, conducted the graveside service. The Archdiocese of Miami donated the plot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see a small white casket like that, you can\u2019t help but be struck by the reality of what happened to her,\u201d said Thomas L. Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, which is representing Shanice\u2019s mother, Sycloria Shante Williams, in a lawsuit against the abortion clinic.<\/p>\n

Williams, 18 at the time, was 23 weeks pregnant when she went to A GYN Diagnostic Center in Hialeah to abort her child. No medical staff was present when she delivered a live baby girl, police reports say. Clinic staff, led by co-owner Belkis Gonzalez, apparently panicked. Someone later called the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe baby was quickly stuffed into a plastic bag with bleach and then hidden from police when they came to investigate,\u201d Brejcha said.<\/p>\n

Eight days later the bag containing baby Shanice\u2019s decomposing body was found during a second investigation by Hialeah detectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn informant, most likely someone who worked there and saw what happened, said that the body was hidden on the roof,\u201d said Ed Brophy, investigator for the Thomas More Society.<\/p>\n

The unsuccessful abortion and suspicious actions by A GYN\u2019s co-owner and staff led to an investigation by the state attorney\u2019s office, which is still considering criminal charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot comment on open investigations,\u201d said Terry Chavez, a spokesperson for the Miami\u2013Dade Office of the State Attorney.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit and pro-life legal organization based in Chicago, has initiated a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of the baby\u2019s mother. The society has hired Miami attorney Tom Pennekamp Jr. as co-counsel. Pennekamp is a former president of the Dade County Bar Association and considered an expert on personal injury cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing this because a criminal investigation shouldn\u2019t take this long and produce no answer. There hasn\u2019t been any real movement on this as far as criminal prosecution goes,\u201d Brejcha said.<\/p>\n

Pennekamp said he believes that the lack of action by prosecutors is \u201cpolitics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a bright line \u2013 that means no gray area \u2013 between being inside or outside the womb. Once a baby is outside the womb and alive, it is protected by Florida law,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is more at the FC link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hours before we cast our votes, here’s a sobering reminder of what is at stake, from Florida Catholic: More than two years after her ignominious death at an abortion clinic, baby Shanice Denise Osbourne was laid to rest at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale. Her small white casket was escorted by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nThe small white casket - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/the-small-white-casket.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The small white casket - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hours before we cast our votes, here’s a sobering reminder of what is at stake, from Florida Catholic: More than two years after her ignominious death at an abortion clinic, baby Shanice Denise Osbourne was laid to rest at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}