Posted on 05/14/2013 4:21:14 PM PDT by Morgana
Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell has given up his right to appeal the verdict that found him guilty on three of the four first-degree murder charges he faced.
As a result, prosecutors have agreed to life terms in prison for the former abortion facility owner and he will now not face the death penalty.
Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell will now face sentencing Wednesday as opposed to next week, where he could have been subjected to the death penalty by a second jury. The prosecutors originally sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person and because of the age of the newborn babies involved.
They also agreed to the life sentences in prison because Gosnell’s age made it unlikely he would be executed before his appeals ran out, as he would die naturally beforehand.
“Gosnell is to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts,” AP reported.
Gosnell defense attorney Jack McMahon talked with local media before the sentencing agreement and said he realized it would be an uphill battle to get a lower sentence.
“The media has been overwhelmingly against him,” McMahon said. “But I think the jury listened to the evidence … and they found what they found.”
Gosnell was found guilty of killing Baby A, Baby C and Baby D and found not guilty of killing Baby E. He was also convicted on hundreds of lesser charges ranging from infanticide to running a corrupt organization.
Gonell was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, who died after a botched abortion. And he was found guilty on most of the more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s informed consent law.
In total, Gosnell was found guilty of 21 out of 24 felony counts of illegal abortions beyond the 24 week limit and found guilty on all but 16 of 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law.
Under Pennsylvania law, all 12 of the jurors must reach a unanimous verdict on any of the murder counts Gosnell faces for him to be convicted on any of them. Each of the elements of a charged crime must be proven to each juror beyond reasonable doubt for that juror to vote to convict on that count and one reluctant juror could lead to a mistrial on any of the first-degree murder charges.
Below are the details related to the four babies Gosnell was charged with killing:
Baby Boy A was the biggest baby that Kareema Cross had ever seen delivered at Gosnell’s abortion “House of Horrors” clinic in the four years she worked there. He was delivered to 17-year old Shaquana Abrams at 29.4 weeks gestation, according to an ultrasound record. Baby Boy A was so large, he did not fit into the plastic shoe box that Gosnell tossed him in. Cross said she saw the baby pull in his arms and legs while Gosnell explained the movements as “reflexes” telling her the baby really didn’t move prior to cutting the baby’s neck. Baby Boy A was so large, Gosnell joked that “this baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.” Cross and fellow employees Adrienne Moton and 15-year old Ashley Baldwin were all so “startled” by the size of the baby that they all took photos of the baby with their cell phones.
Baby C was an intact baby of over 25-weeks gestation. Kareema Cross testified that she saw Baby C breathing and described the up and down chest movements she observed for 20 minutes. She told the court she saw Lynda Williams lift the baby’s arm and watched as the newborn drew it back on its own power. Afterwards, Williams inserted surgical scissors into the baby’s neck and “snipped” the spinal cord. Gosnell was said to be in the room at the time. This baby’s murder charges were unintentionally dismissed in the place of Baby F, but were reinstated after Judge Minehart discovered his error.
Baby D was described by witnesses as 12-15 inches long with the head the size of a “big pancake” when he was delivered into a toilet. Kareema Cross testified that she saw the baby struggling, using swimming motions in an attempt to get out of the toilet bowl. Adrienne Moton pulled the baby out and “snipped” the neck, as Gosnell had taught her to do, while the mother watched. Gosnell has also been charged with Criminal Solicitation of Moton to commit murder of Baby D.
Baby E was estimated to be at least 23 weeks gestation and maybe more. After Baby E was delivered, teen Ashley Baldwin heard the baby cry and called Kareema Cross for help. Cross described the baby’s cry as a “whine.” Baldwin said that Gosnell when into the room then came out with the baby — which now had an incision in its neck — and tossed it into the waste bin.
Eight other defendants who are former staffers of Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion clinic have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Previously, the judge in the case reinstated one of the murder charges and dropped another. Gosnell’s defense attorney asked the judge to drop three of the charges for killing the babies and the judge agreed with the contention there was not enough evidence to convict Gosnell on those charges. Another charge of infanticide was also dropped.
One of the dropped charges involved a 28-week-old baby Gosnell killed and whose remains were kept in an abortion clinic freezer.
Common pleas court Judge Jeffrey Minehart also dropped five counts of corpse abuse at the request of his defense attorney and did not explain his ruling dropping any of the charges.
The defense had argued that there were no live births at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Center abortion clinic and contends the babies died during abortions and their necks were snipped afterwards. But former Gosnell staffers testified they saw signs of life even after the abortion had been completed — saying the babies “jumped” and “screamed” and tried to escape.
Gosnell, whose squalid “house of horrors” abortion clinic has surprised even investigative officials, has had almost flippant attitude toward his macabre abortion practices shocked the nation.
“The Gosnell case is a watershed moment for the issue of abortion,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation. “The discovery of his horrific practices helped shed light on an abortion industry that has run amok without oversight or accountability for decades, and has prompted significant changes in abortion laws and attitudes toward enforcement in several states.”
Previously, Gosnell’s wife Pearl pleaded guilty to assisting her husband at his Philadelphia abortion center where he killed a woman in a botched abortion and has killed hundreds of babies in abortion-infanticides. Pearl Gosnell was considering a plea deal similar to the one several of Gosnell’s former abortion center employees have made where they have pleaded guilty to receive a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying against Gosnell.
Pearl also worked at the abortion center Gosnell ran that had him kill and injure women in failed abortions and kill perhaps hundreds of babies in grisly infanticides by birthing them and “snipping” their spinal cords. She worked at the Women’s Medical Society abortion business her husband ran as a full-time medical assistant from 1982 until she married Kermit Gosnell in 1990, when she switched to only working on Sundays.
At that time, the abortion business was officially closed but would do its latest-term abortions possible. The grand jury report indicates Pearl Gosnell testified that she alone helped Kermit do abortions on Sundays when she would “help do the instruments” in the operating room despite no medical training.
The murder charges also came in connection with the botched abortion death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died at Gosnell’s abortion clinic after a failed abortion. Mongar died November 20, 2009, after overdosing on anesthetics prescribed by the doctor.
Mongar’s family filed a lawsuit against Gosnell’s abortion business seeking damages. Gosnell and several staffers at his abortion center, including Pearl, were arrested in January after a grand jury indicted them on multiple charges after officials raided his abortion business following a woman’s death and discovered a “shop of horrors” filled with bags of bodies and body parts of deceased unborn children and babies killed in infanticides.
Meanwhile, women have spoken out about their treatment and one woman says she was drugged and tied up and forced to have an abortion. Authorities searching the facility found bags and bottles holding aborted babies scattered around the building, jars containing babies’ severed feet lining a shelf, as well as filthy, unsanitary furniture and equipment.
The grand jury investigation also shows state officials did nothing when reports came in about problems at Gosnell’s abortion center, which has upset incoming pro-life Governor Tom Corbett.
Gosnell’s abortion center was inspected only after a federal drug raid in 2010. It was the first time the facility had been inspected in 17 years because state officials ignored complaints and failed to visit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society for years.
The abortion industry has been forced to suspend two abortion businesses that employed embattled abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell, who has been the subject of national controversy over his abortion business in Philadelphia.
Darn, I was hoping someone would cut his neck and leave him in a toilet to die slowly
This is not abortion. This is murder. How can this guy get away with doing this?
I hope he bunks with Sandusky.
Paging Jodi Arias, pick up the red courtesy phone...
Zero will pardon him.
Plea deals are made in murder trials all the time.
Look at it this way he has the rest of his unnatural life to sit in a jail cell and NOT kill babies. Sometimes one has to accept even small victories.
If they gave him the death penalty, he would die on death row of natural causes. Now, with a life sentence, he can be placed in GP. I don’t think that’s gonna be much fun for him.
In Jesus’ name, may he use his time in prison to reflect on his crimes, wholeheartedly repent of them, call on the name of the LORD for salvation, and spend the rest of his days productively fighting against the abortion industry. May many lives be saved in the future because he turns from his past deeds and condemns them openly. May Gosnell become an effective resource in the fight against murdering the unknown.
Amen
Majority of convicted murderers do not get sent to the gallows.
Yep, only thing worse than short eyes in GP and that would be baby killers.
Typical murderer. Has no problem taking the life of innocent babies, but wheels and deals to save his own sorry ass. I hope he suffers for the rest of his life.
Better that he doesn't die at our hands...he will get a sense--a hint--of where he is headed before he dies. And it will give him a foretaste of Hell.
Wicked, hellish man...hellish culture.
In Jesus’ name, may he use his time in prison to reflect on his crimes, wholeheartedly repent of them, call on the name of the LORD ..etc..
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
That’s nice.
But to think he would ‘turn into an anti abortion zealot’ makes me believe you would be a fan of Dick Morris.
For sure, He will be seeking Jesus’ help NOW, when he should have been following him for the years he was running his own House of Horrors ‘butcher shop’.
However, I agree with Roccus #8, put him in a 4 man cell with a couple of Bubbas and when Bubba and his posse ‘tire’ of him, the GP will deliver justice. In their own fashion, maybe performing an ‘abortion’ on his innards from the rear passageway.
So a guy that killed babies for a wealthy living is afraid of death? Go figure.
No death penalty for this monster??????
gonna puke
>> But to think he would ‘turn into an anti abortion zealot’ bla bla bla
It doesn’t matter what I think of him.
I am *commanded* to love him and pray for him, whether I feel like it or not.
The commandment comes from One that is even smarter, more articulate, and more powerful than are you.
Yeah, upside down in a toilet struggling to breathe . . . one can only dream of that
Thanks for posting, everyone should have the chance for salvation from the Lord.
He faces a worse penalty I believe. Hell is forever.
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