Jury Deliberations Begin in Gosnell Trial

Expect a long wait for verdict in abortion doctor's murder case

Jurors in the murder trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit B. Gosnell began deliberations Tuesday in what will likely be a long process due to the fact he is charged with five murder counts.

Closing arguments in the murder trial alternated between the defense's insistence that Gosnell's office was no "house of horrors," to the prosecution's brutal depiction of the deaths of a woman and four viable babies.

Gosnell had declined to testify in his defense or even call witnesses at his capital murder trial. Instead, his attorney, Jack McMahon, offered a passionate, often angry defense of his client, blaming the intense media interest in the case and the prosecution for creating a "tremendous rush to judgment."

"Never in my life have I seen the presumption of innocence more trampled on, stomped on, than in this case," McMahon said, arguing that the overdose death of the woman at his West Philadelphia clinic was a "tragic accident" and that there was "no scientific evidence" that Gosnell, 72, killed babies after they were born alive.