Kermit Gosnell, Abortion Doctor, Found Guilty of Murder PHILADELPHIA - Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a West Philadelphia doctor known for performing late-term abortions, was found guilty on Monday on three of four counts of first-degree murder. The verdict came after a five-week trial in which the prosecution and the defense battled over whether the fetuses Dr. Gosnell was charged with killing were alive when they were removed from their mothers. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty when the trial moves into the sentencing phase on May 21. Dr. Gosnell, 72, wearing a dark suit, showed no emotion as the jury foreman read the verdicts on the 10th day of deliberations. Before the foreman spoke, Dr. Gosnell smiled at his lawyer, Jack J. McMahon, and shook his hand. Security in the courtroom was very tight, with 10 additional sheriff's deputies in the room to keep order. Dr. Gosnell was acquitted of one first-degree murder charge involving an aborted fetus. He was also acquitted of third-degree murder in the death of a 41-year-old patient but was found guilty of a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter in that case. The gruesome nature of the case and the squalid conditions in Dr. Gosnell's clinic had fueled arguments on both sides of the abortion debate. Anti-abortion campaigners used the case to reinforce their argument that the practice is immoral, while abortion rights advocates warned that it underlined the need to ensure the availability of properly regulated abortions. Some activists accused the national news media of providing scant coverage of the trial to help protect the case for abortion rights. The critics included the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput. The 29 reporters present in the courtroom for the verdict were warned by a court official that no electronic communication would be allowed while the verdict was being read. Prosecutors had argued that Dr. Gosnell murdered seven late-term infants who would have survived if he or his assistants had not given them a drug designed to cause "fetal demise" and then plunged scissors into their necks to ensure that they were dead. But the prosecution suffered a setback last month when Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart of the Court of Common Pleas threw out three of the seven first-degree murder charges without giving a reason. Clinic workers who appeared as witnesses for the prosecution said some of the fetuses appeared to move or make noises. One, known as Baby D, was delivered into a toilet and appeared to make swimming motions before one of Dr. Gosnell's assistants cut its neck, according to a worker cited during closing arguments by Edward Cameron, an assistant district attorney. Mr. Cameron and another assistant district attorney, Joanne Pescatore, also told the jury, which was composed of eight women and four men, that Dr. Gosnell kept the severed feet of aborted fetuses in dozens of jars around his clinic, the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia. According to a January 2011 grand jury report, Dr. Gosnell's patients were covered with bloodstained blankets, treated with unsterilized instruments and surrounded by cats that were allowed to defecate in the building. To bolster their argument that Dr. Gosnell subjected his patients to filthy and dangerous conditions, prosecutors presented the jury with a dirty procedure table and a stained ultrasound probe. That left Dr. Gosnell facing four charges of first-degree murder, as well as one charge of third-degree murder in connection with the death of the patient. The lesser charges he faced included violating a Pennsylvania law that bans abortions beyond 24 weeks, and more than 200 counts of breaking a state law that requires doctors to wait 24 hours to perform an abortion after the first consultation with the patient. In defense arguments, Mr. McMahon argued that there was no evidence that any of the fetuses were born alive and that his client was therefore not guilty on any of the murder counts. He also told jurors that the death of the patient, a refugee from Bhutan, was due to existing medical problems and not to an overdose of an anesthetic administered by Dr. Gosnell's unlicensed assistants, as prosecutors had said. Mr. McMahon also dismissed prosecutors" arguments that one of the fetuses, Baby C, was alive after being aborted. He said that a reported movement was just a "spasm" and that Baby C was not breathing.