Source: Accused Abortion Doctor's Wife Working On Plea Agreement
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell's wife may not be with him at the defense table for his trial. Her lawyer and prosecutors are working out a possible guilty-plea agreement. Sources say under the deal, she would not testify.
Attorney Michael Medway told the court they were in the midst of working out an arrangement, and Judge Benjamin Lerner told them to report back at a hearing December 1st. 50-year old Pearl Gosnell faces charges that include conspiring to commit an illegal late-term abortion and being part of a corrupt organization.
Since the Grand Jury report earlier this year, six-of-10 defendants have pleaded guilty. Gosnell faces the most serious charges - which he denies - 1st degree murder in the deaths of seven viable babies and the drug overdose death of a patient.
Prosecutors say he faces a potential death penalty, if convicted.
Judge Lerner did grant a defense request to throw out the grand jury testimony of another defendant, unlicensed doctor Eileen O'Neal. He says former judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, who supervised the Grand Jury, gave O'Neal 'misleading and legally incorrect advice' on whether O'Neal should have a lawyer for that appearance.
Reported by Steve Tawa, KYW Newsradio
