Kermit Gosnell, an abortion doctor, was convicted of first-degree in three counts of murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three babies and one adult patient at his inner-city clinic, Time Magazine reported. His sentence is not yet decided, as jurors will reconvene on May 21 to consider whether he should be executed. Gosnell was acquitted of one count of first-degree murder in a fourth abortion, NBC News reported.
"He's disappointed and he's upset," defense lawyer Jack McMahon said.
Gosnell was convicted on plenty of other charges, including infanticide, conspiracy and running a corrupt organization, NBCPhiladelphia reported.
The verdict caps 2 month trial. The most serious charges dealt with allegations Gosnell delivered babies alive during late-term abortions and then snipped their spinal cords.
"It was literally a beheading," a medical-student graduate Stephen Massoff who worked at Gosnell said. "It is separating the brain from the body."
Gosnell's defense team denied that any of the births were live and said that Gosnell used drugs to stop the fetuses' hearts before they were delivered.
Asked whether he might be able to make a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty if he drops any plan to appeal, McMahon said "that's always a possibility."
Many observers pointed to the rather cavalier attitude of Gosnell in describing his operations. One employee had testified that after Gosnell snipped the neck of a fetus delivered at 30 weeks, he joke it was big enough "to walk to the bus stop."
So many women were given abortion-inducing drugs at one that it would rain fetuses... fetuses and blood all over the place," Massof said.
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