SALON

Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 4:52 PM UTC

3 murder charges dismissed in Gosnell case

The abortion provider could still face the death penalty if convicted in the deaths of four other newborns

By

Topics: Associated Press, Kermit Gosnell, Abortion, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ,

3 murder charges dismissed in Gosnell caseDr. Kermit Gosnell (Credit: Reuters/Yong Kim)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An abortion provider charged with killing babies after they were born alive won a reprieve when a judge threw out three murder counts, but the death penalty still looms if he is convicted in four other newborn deaths.

Lawyers for Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, could start presenting defense witnesses as early as Wednesday. Gosnell has been in prison since a 2011 grand jury report that described his outdated West Philadelphia clinic as “a house of horrors.”

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart had ruled Tuesday that prosecutors over the past month failed to make a case on three of the seven first-degree murder counts, involving aborted babies known as Baby B, Baby C and Baby G.

On Wednesday, Minehart clarified that he did not intend to dismiss charges related to Baby C, which former employee Lynda Williams admits killing after it was alive for 20 minutes.

Instead, Minehart has thrown out the charges involving Baby F, which allegedly jerked its leg after it was born. Another staff member says Gosnell then cut the baby’s neck to “ensure fetal demise.”

Defense lawyer Jack McMahon challenged testimony from former staffers that they routinely saw aborted babies move, breathe or cry, even after they’d been given a drug designed to stop their heart in utero. McMahon argued that any movement or breath seen by the staffers amounted to involuntary spasms.

He noted that each of the babies had purportedly moved, breathed or whined just once.

“These are not the movements of a live child,” McMahon argued Tuesday, after a month of prosecution testimony. “There is not one piece – not one – of objective, scientific evidence that anyone was born alive.”

Minehart did not elaborate on his ruling, leaving the nearly full courtroom of reporters, abortion opponents and others to interpret his reasoning.

The body of Baby B had been found stored in a plastic water jug in 2010. The baby, like others, had been “snipped” or cut in the neck, and prosecution witnesses estimated it to be 28 weeks gestation. But McMahon had argued there was no evidence the baby had breathed outside the womb.

And unlicensed doctor Stephen Massof had said he saw Gosnell cut the spine of Baby G, after seeing what he called “a respiratory excursion.” McMahon, though, said there was no proof of the baby’s age or viability.

The judge also upheld third-degree murder charges in the 2009 overdose death of a patient, 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar.

“She wasn’t treated any differently than any of the other thousands of other people who went through there,” McMahon argued, attributing the death to a medical complication.

Prosecutors have said that patients were routinely exposed to unsanitary, intentionally reckless conditions at Gosnell’s clinic. Former staffers have testified that patients received heavy sedatives and painkillers from untrained workers while Gosnell was offsite, and were then left in waiting rooms for hours, often unattended.

The 2011 grand jury report alleges that dozens of women were injured at Gosnell’s clinic over the past 30 years. Some left with torn wombs or bowels, some with venereal disease contracted through the reuse of non-sterilized equipment, and some left with fetal remains still inside them, the report alleged. The report also blamed Gosnell for an earlier maternal death that was not charged.

The prosecution rested Thursday, and the defense is calling witnesses this week. It’s not known if Gosnell will testify.

A string of character witnesses testified Tuesday afternoon for Gosnell’s co-defendant, Eileen O’Neill. She is charged with three counts of theft for practicing medicine without a license, after Minehart dismissed six similar counts.

Eight other former co-workers, including Gosnell’s wife Pearl, have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from third-degree murder to racketeering to performing illegal, late-term abortions.

Gosnell is also charged with racketeering, performing illegal abortions and failing to counsel women 24 hours before a procedure.

More Maryclaire Dale.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
261 points262 points | 28 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
181 points182 points | 80 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
46 points47 points | 18 comments
vote
"New evidence reveals big banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands of homes – and weak settlement allows it."
30 points31 points | comment
vote
Are millennials delusional? New research suggests that members of "Generation Me" are warped by a profound sense of entitlement
29 points30 points | 22 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations