Dr. Kermit Gosnell is escorted to a waiting police van upon leaving the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia, after being convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies who were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his clinic.PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing live babies may be in court for the final time before serving out the last chapter of his life in prison.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell has decided not to appeal the first-degree murder conviction handed down Monday for killing three babies born alive at his clinic. Instead, the 72-year-old physician will accept several terms of life without parole and avoid a potential death sentence.
Gosnell assured a judge Tuesday that he was making the deal freely, and was then sentenced in the deaths of the first two babies. He offered the same odd, bemused smile that has become his trademark in court. He will be formally sentenced in the death of a third baby Wednesday, along with the overdose death of a patient and hundreds of abortion law violations.
Gosnell’s rogue career and ensuing murder trial has become the latest flashpoint in the nation’s enduring abortion debate.
Prosecutors had argued during the two-month trial that he routinely used scissors to “snip” babies born alive, and they pursued murder convictions in seven infant deaths. But the judge dismissed three of the counts, and the jury rejected a fourth.