A jury of five women and seven men took only two hours to convict Dr David Benjamin of murdering Guadalupe Negron on 9 July 1993. Mrs Negron, a 33 year old Honduran immigrant to the US and a mother of four, was about 20 weeks pregnant and allegedly paid $800 (£530) for an abortion. Dr Benjamin, whose licence had been revoked in 1993 because of charges of gross incompetence and negligence in abortions performed on five women in 1990, was continuing to practise pending the outcome of his appeal.

In …