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Abortion doctor convicted of murder avoids death sentence.
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A Philadelphia abortion provider found guilty of first-degree murder has agreed give up his right to appeal in exchange for avoiding a possible death sentence, Philadelphia's district attorney's office announced Tuesday. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was convicted Monday on three counts of murder for killing babies by cutting their spinal cords with scissors. The next step in the case was to have been the penalty phase, when jurors would have weighed whether to give Gosnell a death sentence. A jury also found Gosnell guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the case of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died of an anesthetic overdose during a second-trimester abortion at Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic. Additionally, Gosnell, who is not a board-certified obstetrician or gynecologist, was found guilty of 21 counts of abortion of the unborn, 24 weeks or older. In Pennsylvania, abortions past 24 weeks are illegal unless the health of the mother is at stake.
In Other News • Thirteen out of 14 Boston deputy fire chiefs have signed a letter of "no confidence" in Fire Chief Steve Abraira's handling of the Boston Marathon bombings. • The Justice Department on Tuesday defended its decision to subpoena phone records from Associated Press bureaus and reporters, saying the requests were limited and necessary to investigate a leak of classified information. The AP revealed Monday that federal agents had collected two months of telephone records for some of its reporters and editors without notifying it of the subpoena. In question is the balance between the public's right to know with national security. • A Philadelphia abortion provider found guilty of first-degree murder has agreed to give up his right to appeal in exchange for avoiding a possible death sentence. • According to transportation safety investigators, a common benchmark in the United States for determining when a driver is legally drunk is not doing enough to prevent alcohol-related crashes that kill about 10,000 people each year and should be made more restrictive. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended on Tuesday that all 50 states adopt a blood-alcohol content (BAC) cutoff of 0.05 compared to the 0.08 standard on the books today and used by law enforcement and the courts to prosecute drunk driving. Under current law, a 180-pound male typically will hit the 0.08 threshold after four drinks over an hour, according to an online blood alcohol calculator published by the University of Oklahoma. That same person could reach the 0.05 threshold after two to three drinks over the same period. • A Mayan pyramid that has stood for 2,300 years in Belize has been reduced to rubble, apparently to make fill for roads. The temple at the Noh Mul site in northern Belize was largely torn down by backhoes and bulldozers last week. The pyramid was the center of a settlement of about 40,000 people and 81 buildings over 12 square miles.Itstood about 65 feet tall and was built around 250 B.C. with hand-cut limestone bricks. The limestone is quality material used to upgrade local roads, and it's prized by contractors.
