PHILADELPHIA — A jury has gone home after deliberating for two hours in the capital murder trial of a Philadelphia abortion doctor accused of killing a patient and four babies.
Prosecutors say 72-year-old Kermit Gosnell routinely killed babies born alive during illegal, late-term abortions.
Gosnell faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the infant deaths. He is also charged with third-degree murder in the patient’s overdose 2009 death.
Gosnell’s lawyer says there were no live births at the clinic. Gosnell has been in prison since the 2011 indictment.
The jury’s first question involved a theft charge against co-defendant Eileen O’Neill, a former clinic employee. She is accused of billing as a doctor when she was not licensed.
