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Jurors in abortion clinic death case split on 2 counts

PHILADELPHIA — Jurors in the murder trial of a longtime Philadelphia abortion provider said this morning that they are divided on two of the more than 200 counts in the case, but the judge asked them to try again to reach a unanimous verdict.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, is accused of killing a patient and four babies allegedly born alive and then killed with scissors at his clinic in a rundown West Philadelphia neighborhood.

He also faces racketeering and conspiracy charges, and hundreds of counts alleging he performed illegal, third-trimester abortions or failed to counsel women.

It’s not clear which two counts have divided jurors. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart asked the panel to try to reach a unanimous verdict.

The jury has been weighing the more than 200 counts in the case for 10 days.

Judges can eventually take a partial verdict and leave prosecutors to decide whether to retry the unresolved counts.

Gosnell ran the Women’s Medical Society for more than 30 years until the FBI shut it down after a 2010 raid focused on his high-volume business distributing painkiller prescriptions. Authorities stumbled upon abortions done at night and found 47 aborted fetuses stored in refrigerators.

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