The jury announced that it is deadlocked on two of the counts against Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, prompting the judge today to instruct the jury to continue trying to reach a verdict on those two particular counts.
It’s not clear which counts have the jury hung.
Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart told the jury members that their progress shows they’re “considering the evidence seriously” and was an “indication of sincerity.”
The jury includes several transit authority bus drivers, a water department inspector, a day care worker and a bank teller. They have been deliberating since Tuesday afternoon.
Gosnell, 72, who ran the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia, which served mostly low-income women and teens and went years without a state inspection, has been in custody since his 2011 arrest. Gosnell could face the death penalty if found guilty of killing the four live babies with scissors.
After deliberating for one hour and 47 minutes on the 10th day, the jury sent a note to the judge at 10:07 a.m. Monday stating that they were hung on two counts, according to CBS affiliate KYW.
At the end of the trial, both the prosecutor and defense attorney asked the jurors to show “courage” after the seven-week trial that both transfixed and horrified the nation.
In addition to the four counts of first-degree murder in the infant deaths, Gosnell also faces one count of third-degree murder in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, 24 counts of performing abortions past Pennsylvania’s 24-week gestational age, 227 counts of performing abortions without giving the woman the mandated 24-hour waiting period, and other counts involving racketeering and operating a “corrupt organization.”
In addition, Eileen O’Neill, 56, an unlicensed doctor who worked in the family-practice section of Gosnell’s clinic, faces counts of theft by deception and participating in a corrupt organization. O’Neill has been free on bail since her arrest.
The jury deliberations were expected to be lengthy as the jurors had to work their way through the 30 pages of charges, deliberating on each one.
