Juries in three high-profile trials reach no verdicts
Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, drug kingpin Kaboni Savage and a homeless mother await their fates.
THREE PHILADELPHIA juries deliberating the fates of defendants accused of horrific crimes apparently are not rushing to judgment.
All three - two in state court and one in federal court - have been deliberating for days and failed to reach verdicts this week. They will resume Monday.
Disgraced abortion doctor and alleged murderer Kermit Gosnell is the star defendant in courtroom 304 of the Criminal Justice Center, while Tanya Williams, 34, a homeless woman accused of starving to death her 2-month-old son in December 2010, is the defendant upstairs in courtroom 507.
At the federal courthouse, cocaine kingpin Kaboni Savage, accused of taking part in 12 murders, is awaiting his fate.
Gosnell, 72, and Savage, 38, each could receive the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
The jury that has been deliberating the longest and which has received the most attention is Gosnell's, which got the case April 30.
Those jurors finished a ninth day of work yesterday, when Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart sent them home just before 2 p.m., deciding they needed a break.
Gosnell is accused of murdering four babies born alive during abortions at his now-closed West Philadelphia clinic. He is also charged with the third-degree murder of a patient who died during a 2009 abortion, and with 227 counts of performing late-term abortions and violating the state's abortion law, on which jurors will have to rule individually.
Williams' jury began deliberating Thursday after a six-day trial. Her charges include murder and child endangerment for the Dec. 23, 2010, death of Quasir Alexander, who succumbed to starvation and dehydration in a city homeless shelter.
Savage's jury began reviewing the case Monday, after a 13-week trial.