Posted on 05/13/2013 9:26:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Reports this morning indicate the jury in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell is hung on two counts, but reports do not indicate which ones.
The jury has indicated that it has reached verdicts on 261 other counts. Judge Minehart took less than five minutes to instruct the jury to go back and reconsider the two hung charges and attempt to come to a consensus without violating anyone’s conscience. He told them that their disagreement is a sign that they are taking the case seriously, according to reporters inside the courtroom.
If verdicts cannot be reached, the judge may accept the guilty verdicts and declare a mistrial on the two hung counts.
jdmullane @jdmullane
#Gosnell jury says it is hung on two counts, but don't say which ones. 10:17 AM - 13 May 2013
Joseph A. Slobodzian @JoeSlobo
Judge could tell Gosnell jury to keep trying or declare mistrial on two and take verdicts on remaining 250+ counts. 10:34 AM - 13 May 2013
Sean G. O'Sullivan @SeanGOSullivan
According to attys, judge will order #gosnell jury to try again on two hung counts before he accepts partial verdict or declares mistrial 10:37 AM - 13 May 2013
Sean G. O'Sullivan @SeanGOSullivan
#gosnell Jury note implies they have reached agreement on 261 other charges #verdictwatch #netde 10:44 AM - 13 May 2013
jdmullane @jdmullane
Judge Minehart will give #Gosnell jury a "Spencer charge," I.e. implore them to reach a verdict, though not violate their conscious. 10:49 AM - 13 May 2013
Steve Volk @SteveVolk
Judge just told jury disagreement is a sign they are taking case "seriously," "objectively" and sent them back. #Gosnell @phillymag
Gosnell is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for killing babies following delivery in an abortion process that involved “snipping” their necks and spinal cords. He also faces a third-degree murder charge related to the death of a woman, Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, from a botched legal abortion. Gosnell, who has been in jail since his January 2011 arrest.
The abortionist faces 258 counts total and other charges against him include one count of infanticide and one of racketeering, 24 counts of performing third-trimester abortions and 227 counts of failing to follow the 24-hour waiting period law before an abortion so women can consider its risks and alternatives.
Last week, the wanted to re-hear testimony from Adrienne Moton, a medical assistant who told the court in March that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies during unorthodox abortions. And she said Dr. Kermit Gosnell and another employee did the same sipping technique. Moton, the first employee to testify, sobbed as she recalled taking a cellphone photograph of one baby left in her work area.
She thought he could have survived, given his size and pinkish color. She had measured him at nearly 30 weeks. “The aunt felt it was just best for her (the mother’s) future,” Moton testified. Gosnell later joked that the baby was so big he could have walked to the bus stop, she said. Jurors saw Moton’s photograph on a large screen in the courtroom, which took on a bizarre look Tuesday as she testified near a hospital bed with stirrups and other aging obstetric equipment.
Denied the chance to bring jurors to the shuttered inner-city clinic, prosecutors are instead recreating a patient room in court. Moton, 35, sobbed as she described her work at the clinic. Because of problems at home, she had moved in with Gosnell and his third wife during high school, and she went to work for him from 2005 to 2008. She earned about $10 an hour, off the books, to administer drugs, perform sonograms, help with abortions and dispose of fetal remains. Workers got $20 bonuses for second-term abortions on Saturdays, when a half-dozen were sometimes performed. She once had to kill a baby delivered in a toilet, cutting its neck with scissors, she said.
Asked if she knew that was wrong, she said, “At first I didn’t.” If sentenced for the convictions, Gosnell could face the death penalty following the convictions by the jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia. 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. Since prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty in the case, the jury will only be deciding whether Gosnell is guilty related to the charges.
If convicted, a second jury will be impaneled to determine sentencing under the penalty phase of the trial. During this phase, the judge has already instructed jurors to only consider guilt or innocence. Given the number of charges Gosnell faces, and the fact that Gosnell has a co-defendant the jury is considering for conviction as well, the jury make take a longer period of time to arrive at a verdict on each of the 250-plus charges. Most of the focus in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell is on the murder charges he faces for killing babies in abortion-infanticides and for killing a woman in a botched abortion.
But Gosnell faces more than 200 charges related to violating Pennsylvania state law that requires him to provide women with informed consent 24 hours prior to the abortion. Gosnell is charged with breaking that law by not giving women information about abortion risks and alternatives 24 hours prior to the abortion. 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.
she wasn’t loaded with 258 charges. He is loaded with undeniable non-murder felony charges that are undeniable. He will be convicted of many of them. It is important that he is convicted of the baby murders. It is really all that matters.
I certainly hope he is and agree that it's important he be convicted of the baby murders, but that doesn't mean he will. I fear he'll be "convicted" of some relatively minor, peripheral offenses, but will skate on the murder raps.
The rule of thumb is that acquittals come relatively quickly but convictions take time. There are of course exceptions. I've seen an insanity jury (on a defense in a murder case) come back with a verdict of sane/competent to stand trial in twenty minutes.
I think we all fear that. Our society is truly sick1
Verdict is in. Standing by...
Well....if you insist....
I don’t know if they’ll find him guilty. People who are dumb enough to vote for Obama are capable of any level of idiocy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if CZAR GOSNELL OBAMA granted the murderer a pardon and invited him to the Rose Garden for a beer!
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