Guilty of first-degree murder. That was the verdict delivered three times over on Monday, May 13, for Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who ran a baby charnel house in the impoverished Manuta section of the city. Gosnell was charged with the deaths of four infants, known as known as Baby A, Baby B, Baby C, Baby D and Baby E, and the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar.
The jury rejected defense attorney Jack McMahon’s argument that Gosnell was the target of elitist and racist prosecution. He described Gosnell as a doctor who provided desperate young women with a “solution to their problems.”
After a two-month trial and 10 days of deliberations, Gosnell was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of three of the infants and guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Mongar.
The babies were just four of thousands that Gosnell aborted in his filthy, run-down Women’s Medical Society. Gosnell made a practice of killing live babies by plunging scissors into the backs of their necks and “snipping” their spinal cords, to, as he put it, “ensure fetal demise.” He trained members of his unlicensed staff to do the same. The defense argued that no babies were born alive.
Mongar, a 41-year-old Bhutanese refugee, died in 2009 after being overdosed with Demerol. Drugs was administered by a teen and chosen from a handwritten wall chart. There was no monitoring equipment on site. The defense argued that an undisclosed condition caused Mongar’s death.
When federal agents raided the decrepit clinic in 2011, they were looking for evidence of a pill mill. Gosnell ranked third in the state for OxyContin prescriptions, which he sold to cash-paying patients. What they found during the late-night raid was a filthy, foul-smelling facility with drugged and dazed women and scores of dead babies stored everywhere. Gosnell was arrested and charged, and the clinic shut down permanently. Eight of his employees, including his wife, Pearl, face charges of their own. Several testified against him during the trial.
The jury also found Eileen O’Neill, 56, Gosnell’s co-defendant, guilty of two counts of theft by deception and two of conspiracy.
The jury decided on Tuesday and decided if Gosnell should receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole. He still faces federal charges for the illicit drug operation, which, along with the abortion mill, netted him millions of dollars for more than 30 years.