Kermit Gosnell

For eight weeks, they endured some of the most graphic images and gruesome testimony ever aired in a Philadelphia courtroom. Then they spent nine days behind closed doors, poring over evidence from hundreds of abortions and debating if Kermit Gosnell was a murderer or a martyr. When they were finally discharged Wednesday, the jurors who convicted him said they were spent but relieved - and were certain their verdicts were sound. More than anything, the foreman said, the jury became convinced that Gosnell knew he was killing babies at his West Philadelphia clinic, but didn't care.

It's one of the macabre mysteries in the case of Kermit Gosnell: Why did the West Philadelphia abortion doctor keep the severed feet of fetuses preserved in specimen jars? In testimony Tuesday, Adrienne Moton, a former worker at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, told a Philadelphia jury that Gosnell once explained that he did so in case patients requested them for future identification or DNA samples. But an expert on fetal development, testifying Wednesday at Gosnell's abortion-murder trial, said that was news to him. "Do you think there is any medical reason to save the foot of a baby?"

He is known only as "Baby Boy B," a fetus estimated to be 28 weeks old, found frozen in an altered one-gallon plastic water jug in Dr. Kermit Gosnell's West Philadelphia abortion clinic. His passing went unnoticed and undocumented, but on Monday, prosecution and defense lawyers struggled to get Philadelphia's chief medical examiner to say whether he was stillborn or killed by Gosnell after being born alive during an abortion. "Based on the totality of the evidence . . . you cannot testify to anyone that this fetus was born alive?"

At the time, it must have seemed like the ultimate work-study program. Ashley Baldwin, a 15-year-old sophomore at University City High School who was thinking of becoming a doctor, got a job at one of the busiest clinics in West Philadelphia. She was paid, and in no time went from answering phones to doing ultrasounds, administering intravenous medicine, and, ultimately, assisting in abortions performed by her mentor, Kermit Gosnell. Now 22 and the mother of a 2-year-old son, Baldwin on Thursday told a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury hearing Gosnell's murder trial of her unusual hands-on medical apprenticeship.

It's one of the macabre mysteries in the case of Kermit Gosnell: Why did the West Philadelphia abortion doctor keep the severed feet of fetuses preserved in specimen jars? In testimony Tuesday, Adrienne Moton, a former worker at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, told a Philadelphia jury that Gosnell once explained that he did so in case patients requested them for future identification or DNA samples. But an expert on fetal development, testifying Wednesday at Gosnell's abortion-murder trial, said that was news to him. "Do you think there is any medical reason to save the foot of a baby?"

THE JURY IN the Kermit Gosnell capital-murder trial ended a fifth day of deliberations yesterday without reaching a verdict. The panel of seven women and five men will resume work this morning, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart said. Earlier yesterday, the jurors asked Minehart to re-read the definitions of the charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and infanticide. They also asked for the definition of malice. Minehart also asked the jurors whether any of them had seen a Fox News documentary about Gosnell that aired Friday and over the weekend.

Three more jurors were picked Wednesday for the murder trial of West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. A North Philadelphia man, a woman from West Oak Lane, and a man from Mayfair brought the total number of jurors selected to nine: five women and four men. Prosecution and defense lawyers and Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart began the selection process Monday. Twelve jurors and six alternates are needed for a trial estimated to last six to eight weeks.

The wife of West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell pleaded guilty Tuesday to counts involving illegal late-term abortions on poor women at his Women's Medical Society clinic. In a barely audible voice, Pearl Gosnell, 50, pleaded guilty to the charges brought against her in January: participating in an illegal late-term abortion, two counts of conspiracy, and being part of a corrupt organization. The Gosnells and eight employees were charged in January after a grand jury recommended criminal counts from the operation of the clinic at 3801 Lancaster Ave. Unlike the six others who have pleaded guilty, Pearl Gosnell will not testify against her husband when he and two others come to trial on March 14, 2013.

With just three days before jury selection begins in the murder trial of West Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, the 72-year-old doctor was brought to court Thursday to meet with his lawyer, wife and two children to weigh an apparent plea offer by prosecutors. Gosnell never appeared in court at the city's Criminal Justice Center. Instead, he was ensconced in a prisoner interview booth attached to the courtroom. There he spent about two hours as defense attorney Jack McMahon shuttled between the booth and Assistant District Attorneys Edward Cameron and Joanne Pescatore in a nearby waiting room.

CITY PROSECUTORS rested their case against abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on Thursday after calling to the witness stand a former employee who said she saw the doctor and his employees kill babies that were born alive. Kareema Cross, 28, said she was so appalled by Gosnell's ghoulish practices and the rundown condition of his West Philadelphia clinic that she began taking pictures of the facility and eventually reported him to the federal authorities. The former medical assistant spoke of patients being overmedicated by untrained personnel, of dirty instruments being used during abortion procedures, of how routine, illegal late-term abortions were performed and of moving and breathing babies being delivered and having their necks cut by Gosnell and other clinic employees.

For eight weeks, they endured some of the most graphic images and gruesome testimony ever aired in a Philadelphia courtroom. Then they spent nine days behind closed doors, poring over evidence from hundreds of abortions and debating if Kermit Gosnell was a murderer or a martyr. When they were finally discharged Wednesday, the jurors who convicted him said they were spent but relieved - and were certain their verdicts were sound. More than anything, the foreman said, the jury became convinced that Gosnell knew he was killing babies at his West Philadelphia clinic, but didn't care.

Enigmatic as ever, West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell left court for a life in prison this morning without explaining what happened during the 31-years he operated an abortion clinic dubbed the "house or horrors. " "Is there anything you wish to say?" asked Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart before imposing three consecutive life prison terms plus 2-1/2 to 5 years. "Not at this time," replied Gosnell. Gosnell, 72, thanked the judge for his nine-week trial and turned to defense attorney Jack McMahon and said, "Good job. " McMahon shook Gosnell's hand and slapped him loudly on the back.

Without explanation or excuse, West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell started serving three consecutive life sentences Wednesday for the murder of three babies who a jury found were born alive during illegal late-term abortions. "Is there anything you wish to say?" asked Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart before imposing the three life terms plus 21/2 to five years. "Not at this time," replied Gosnell. After the jury's verdict Monday, the 72-year-old physician had faced a hearing next week at which the jurors would decide whether to sentence him to death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole.

AS THE CASE AGAINST convicted baby murderer Kermit Gosnell concluded yesterday with a third and final life-without-parole prison sentence, the doctor declined to speak - but others said plenty. A "murderer and a monster" is how District Attorney Seth Williams described Gosnell, 72, who was convicted Monday of murdering three babies born alive during abortion procedures at his West Philadelphia clinic. "He just sat there for the past eight weeks smirking," said jury foreman David Misko, 27. "The guy is fighting for his life, and he just sits back and smirks.

THE CASE against Kermit Gosnell is expected to come to an end today, when the disgraced abortion doctor is sentenced after he unexpectedly waived his right to appeal in order to avoid a death sentence. Gosnell, 72, who was convicted of the first-degree murders of three babies born alive in his West Philadelphia abortion clinic, was supposed to face a penalty-phase hearing starting Tuesday. But yesterday afternoon, Gosnell changed the script when he stood before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart and waived all of his appellate rights in exchange for a life-without-parole sentence.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, speaking for the first time since abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murder, said Tuesday the verdicts in the case "will surprise very few. " Although the church opposes capital punishment, Chaput in a statement said nothing about the possibility that Gosnell could be sentenced to death for his three first-degree murder convictions. The head of the archdiocese of Philadelphia instead focused mainly on the church's opposition to abortion.

THE JURY IN the Kermit Gosnell capital-murder trial ended a fifth day of deliberations yesterday without reaching a verdict. The panel of seven women and five men will resume work this morning, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart said. Earlier yesterday, the jurors asked Minehart to re-read the definitions of the charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and infanticide. They also asked for the definition of malice. Minehart also asked the jurors whether any of them had seen a Fox News documentary about Gosnell that aired Friday and over the weekend.

THE JURORS in the Kermit Gosnell capital-murder trial ended a fourth day of deliberating yesterday without reaching a verdict, but they indicated that they had begun to focus on the doctor's charges after spending several days dealing with his co-defendant's. The panel of seven women and five men is scheduled to continue deliberations Monday morning. Gosnell, 72, is charged with more than 250 crimes, including the first-degree murders of four fetuses allegedly born alive then killed at his West Philadelphia abortion clinic.

THE JURY is still deliberating on the Kermit Gosnell case, and anticipation of the verdict is high. Deliberations began earlier this week on the gruesome case of the West Philadelphia abortion doctor who performed third-trimester abortions in a medical practice that the grand-jury report called a "filthy fraud. " The stark language of the 2011 grand-jury report conveyed the horror and disgust that most of us feel over this case: "This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women.

The jurors in the Kermit Gosnell capital-murder trial asked their first questions about testimony and evidence pertaining to the doctor on Friday. Since the panel began deliberating on Tuesday, their focus has been on Gosnell's co-defendant, Eileen O'Neill, given that all of their questions were about testimony and witnesses related to her case. O'Neill, 56, of Phoenixville, is charged with six counts of theft by deception and related offenses for working as a doctor without a license at Gosnell's West Philadelphia abortion clinic, where prosecutors contend babies were born alive then murdered.