A Philadelphia jury has found former abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies born alive. He was found not guilty on a fourth count.
Fox News was the first to report the verdict at 3:18pmET. Shannon Bream was outside the courthouse discussing how the judge was threatening to hold anyone in contempt for using cellphones in court as a means to deliver the verdict when her producer Kristin Brown ran to the live position with the news. Rehema Ellis, from the NBC newsroom, reported the guilty verdicts during MSNBC’s “The Cycle” at 3:19pmET. CNN’s Sunny Hostin reported the verdicts from outside the courthouse at 3:22.
Compared to this month’s other high-profile trial, the Gosnell case has seen relatively little coverage. Unlike Arizona, Pennsylvania does not allow cameras in the courtroom; additionally, the judge in the trial issued a gag order banning prosecution and defense lawyers from talking to reporters. And as Howard Kurtz said on “Reliable Sources” last month: “This is a gruesome case that journalists on both sides of the abortion question have told me is hard to stomach. That is especially true on television.”
Meanwhile, HLN, which has ramped up its trial coverage, reported the Gosnell verdict, while keeping cameras trained on another courtroom where another high-profile defendant was in front of a judge: OJ Simpson was in a Las Vegas courtroom today seeking a new trial in his 2008 robbery conviction.