The judge in the trial Kermit Gosnell dropped three of the eight murder charges brought against the Philadelphia abortionist Tuesday.
According to a report from Action News Philadelphia, an ABC affiliate, Gosnell’s lawyers had requested that charges be dropped due to lack of evidence. Judge Jeffrey Minehart agreed to dropping three of the charges on those grounds, deciding that he had not heard enough evidence that the babies were born alive.
The judge also dropped five charges of abuse of a corpse, the ABC affiliate reported.
Former clinic employees have testified to Gosnell “snipping” the necks of babies born alive, seeing babies breathing, moving, swimming when born in a toilet and “screeching.”
Gosnell still faces charges in the deaths of four other babies born alive in botched abortions, and the death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar.