Judge Richard Conway Casey: RIP.(Obituary)

The name, Judge Richard Conway Casey, will probably be vaguely familiar to many readers of National Right to Life News. But as soon as I say, "partial-birth abortion," the light will go on for most of you.

Judge Casey passed away March 22 of an apparent heart attack, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The irony of the AP's lead sentence is hard to miss: "NEW YORKRichard Conway Casey, who was the nation's first blind federal trial judge and presided over high-profile cases including an abortion-law challenge and the Peter Gotti trial, has died at 74." Gotti, of course, was the boss of the Gambino crime family.

The ink had not dried on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act before pro-abortionists took the 2003 law to court. One of the challenges was heard by Judge Casey.

Judge Casey refused to allow the abortionists and their assorted apologists to hide behind euphemisms. His unrelenting questioning evoked some of the most incredible testimony that has ever come out the mouths of abortionists. It made for spell-binding exchanges.

As the AP reported, "Casey had to overcome skeptics when he took on a load of 300 to 400 cases beginning in late 1997, using computer and audio technology while studying documents and preparing to speak in court." Some questioned, according to the AP, "whether a blind judge could ...