Report: Gosnell Jury Hung On Two Charges

Out of 261.

This doesn't mean Gosnell has been found guilty on all other counts, only that they've agreed to verdicts -- including the possibility of "not guilty."

It's possible, for example, the jury has found that there wasn't enough evidence to convict on murder in two of the baby-slayings (say, if they evidence wasn't beyond a reasonable doubt regarding whether they were born alive). There could be one or more jurors resisting any murder charges for the "aborted" babies, even if the evidence is strong they were born alive; it might just be that the rest of the jury agreed with them on two counts, for insufficient evidence.

The judge will now holler at them some and remind them of their duty and tell them to work it out.

Why I Think This Is the Case: I think this way because if they were split 2-2 on guilty/not guilty for the baby murders, they would simply split the difference and present their verdict of 2 guilty, 2 not guilty. They would have still convicted him twice for capital murder; the third and fourth conviction are of less consequence after the first two.

So it's my guess what's going on is that the jury has agreed that on two deaths, there isn't enough evidence to say the baby was alive (and hence murdered), and then there are one or more jurors who are against imposing the verdict of guilty in these cases whatever the evidence.

So I think the fight is between those who want 2 guilty, 2 not guilty verdicts as to the baby murders, and those who want 4 not guilty verdicts for all of them.

posted by Ace at 11:46 AM

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