Jurors who convicted Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell of first-degree murder said Wednesday it was wrenching to sift through the gruesome evidence that he delivered three babies alive and then killed them.

“It was business as usual for him,” juror David Misko told reporters outside the courthouse where Gosnell was sentenced to a third life term as part of a deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.

The panel deliberated 10 days before finding Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for snipping three babies’ spinal cords after botched late-term abortions, along with more than 200 lesser charges.

The three jurors who spoke Wednesday said photos of the babies were the most compelling, and sickening, evidence.

Juror Sarah Glinski said that because she does not have children, she was able to emotionally detach to some degree, but the photos forced her “to admit that this kind of evil exists in this world.

”Misko said it was also difficult to look at Gosnell, 72, in the courtroom.

“He just sat there for the past eight weeks, smirking,” he said.

Two of the jurors said they believed Gosnell had opened his clinic in the poor West Philadelphia neighborhood intending to help young women in dire straits, as the defense contended.

“I think somewhere, something went wrong perhaps in his mind that made him do these things to these children that were born alive,” said Glinksi.

Juror Joseph Carroll said he believed that over the years the clinic became an assembly-line operation.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his lawyer, John McMahon, before Judge Jeffrey Minehart, in Philadelphia, on May 15.

“He started out as a good practice doctor but eventually just became a money-generating machine,” Carroll said.

Carroll feels Gosnell wasn’t the only one to blame, saying women who had gone to the clinic knowing they were more than 24 weeks pregnant should have been charged, too.

“I really believed that they didn’t care,” he said. “They didn’t want a child and they found a service that was going to rectify that situation.

"Gosnell could have faced the death penalty for the babies’ deaths, but in a last-minute deal with prosecutors, he agreed to waive his right to appeal in exchange for life without parole on two of the first-degree murder counts.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to a third life term for the third baby’s death, as well as the death of a 41-year-old patient who overdosed on anesthesia and dozens of other lesser charges.

His defense lawyer said he was convicted in the public’s mind before trial because of a grand jury report that described the clinic as a “house of horrors” splattered with blood, staffed by unlicensed workers and filled with broken-down equipment.

McMahon said Gosnell cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid putting his six children through a death penalty phase, not because he believes he committed a crime.

"Dr. Gosnell truly believes in himself and things he's done but at this point, the jury has spoken ... He's resigned and accepted his fate,” McMahon said.

McMahon said Gosnell knows he “bent the rules” by performing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is prohibited under Pennsylvania law, and admits to other mistakes.

“He recognizes he did things wrong," he said.

But his client, he said, is not a murderer."He believes what he did was not homicide. He believes he never killed a live baby," McMahon said.

"Dr. Gosnell is far from a monster and this was not a house of horrors."Gosnell still faces a federal trial in September on allegations he wrote fraudulent prescriptions for pain pills. McMahon said he "probably" will make a deal on those charges.

Yong Kim / Philadelphia Daily News via AP file

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is interviewed by the Philadelphia Daily News at his attorney's office in Philadelphia In in 2010.

It took the prosecution five weeks to present their case against West Philly abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell and it took defense attorney Jack McMahon a couple of hours to knock a big hole through a critical part of their argument.

Three first-degree murder charges were dropped against Gosnell after McMahon argued that "there is not one piece...of objective, scientific evidence that anyone was born alive" at Gosnell's clinic.

Prosecutors have argued that the babies were viable and that Gosnell and his staff cut them in the back of the neck to kill them.

Gosnell was originally charged with eight counts of murder. Seven first-degree murder charges are for accusations that he killed seven newborns. The third-degree murder charge is for the 2009 death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old Bhutanese refugee prosecutors say received lethal doses of sedatives and painkillers at the clinic while awaiting an abortion.

Read more at NBCPhiladelphia.com

He also is charged with violating Pennsylvania abortion law by performing abortions after 24 weeks, operating a corrupt organization and other crimes. Gosnell was originally charged with seven counts of first degree murder.

Gosnell, 72, still faces five remaining murder charges and the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of any of the first-degree cases.

Judge Jeffery Minehart has not explained the reasoning behind today's rulling.

Former staffer Eileen O'Neill is also on trial. The 56-year-old Phoenixville woman is charged with practicing medicine without a license, and taking part in a corrupt organization. Six of the nine theft by deception charges she faced were dropped today as well because the prosecution didn't present any witnesses to support those charges.

The investigation into Gosnell's clinic began in February 2010 with agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI who were conducting two raids on Gosnell's clinic in search of drug violations. Instead, they stumbled upon "deplorable and unsanitary" conditions, including blood on the floor and parts of aborted fetuses in jars. State regulators followed up with their own investigation, shutting down the Women's Medical Society clinic at 3801 Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia and suspended Gosnell'slicense.

The case then went to a grand jury. Their nearly 300-page grand jury report released in January 2011 described Gosnell's clinic as a filthy, foul-smelling "house of horrors" that was overlooked by regulators.

Prosecutors said Gosnell made millions of dollars over three decades performing thousands of dangerous abortions, many of them illegal late-term procedures. The clinic had no trained nurses or medical staff other than Gosnell, a family physician not certified in obstetrics or gynecology, yet authorities say many administered anesthesia, painkillers and labor-inducing drugs.

The grand jury report stated furniture and blankets in Gosnell's clinic were stained with blood, instruments were not properly sterilized and disposable medical supplies were used repeatedly.

Bags, jars and bottles holding aborted fetuses were scattered throughout the building, which reeked of cat urine because of the animals allowed to roam freely.

State regulators ignored complaints about Gosnell and the 46 lawsuits filed against him and made just five annual inspections since the clinic opened in 1979, investigators said. Several state employees were fired and two agencies overhauled their regulations after the allegations.

Gosnell has always maintained his innocence. He pleaded not guilty and has remained held without bail since his arrest. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the infant deaths.

Prosecutors estimated Gosnell ended hundreds of pregnancies by inducing labor and cutting the babies' spinal cords and caused scores of women to suffer infections and permanent internal injuries, but they said they couldn't prosecute more cases because he destroyed files.

Eight clinic workers including Gosnell's wife, a beautician accused of helping him perform illegal third-term abortions, have pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes. Three of Gosnell's staffers, including an unlicensed medical school graduate and a woman with a sixth-grade education, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for their roles in the woman's overdose death or for cutting babies in the back of the neck to ensure their demise.

In an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News after the clinic was raided, Gosnell described himself as someone who wanted to serve the poor and minorities in the neighborhood where he grew up and raised his six children, who include a doctor and a college professor.

McMahon, disputes that any babies were born alive. He has suggested that the woman who died, Karnamaya Mongar, had undisclosed respiratory problems that could have caused fatal complications.

McMahon has accused officials of "a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution" and "a prosecutorial lynching" of his client, who is black, and of applying "Mayo Clinic" standards to Gosnell's inner-city, cash-only clinic. He said Gosnell performed as many as 1,000 abortions per year, and at least 16,000 over his long career, with a lower-than-average complication rate.

After about a week of jury selection, seven woman and five men were chosen along with six alternate jurors. The trial began March 18 and is expected to last about two months.

Gosnell's former employees have testified that they were just doing what their boss trained them to do and described long, chaotic days performing gruesome work for little more than minimum wage paid under the table. An assistant testified she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies at Gosnell's direction, sobbing as she recalled taking a cellphone photograph of one baby she thought could have survived, given his size and pinkish color.

Mongar's 24-year-old daughter testified about the labor-inducing drugs and painkillers her mother was given as she waited hours for Gosnell to arrive for the procedure. She said her mother was later taken to a hospital, only after firefighters struggled to cut bolts off a side door of the clinic, but she died the next day.

Prosecutors wrapped up their five-week case with a former worker at Gosnell's clinic who testified that she saw more than 10 babies breathing before they were killed. The defense was slated to begin presenting its case Monday but Gosnell's attorney told the judge he was sick and went to a hospital for tests.

Philadelphia Police via AP, file

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, is charged with murder in the deaths of seven babies and one patient.

The trial of Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell has entered its fifth week, and details of the disturbing, graphic testimony about conditions and alleged atrocities at his clinic are reaching the public and garnering more and more attention.  With many more weeks of testimony likely before jurors decide whether Gosnell is guilty of first-degree murder for allegedly delivering viable newborns and then killing them, here’s a primer on Gosnell, the case and his defense.

Who is Kermit Gosnell?

Gosnell, 72, was the owner and only licensed doctor at the Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia’s hardscrabble Mantua neighborhood. The clinic is not far from the middle-class area where he was raised by a gas station operator and a government clerk.

As a young man, Gosnell was a gifted scholar who attended the University of Pennsylvania and Dickinson College. He earned a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University but was not certified in obstetrics and gynecology. He was an early advocate of legal abortion and set up shop in his hometown in the late 1970s, The Associated Press reported.

He has been married three times and is the father of six children.

What is he charged with?

Gosnell is charged with capital murder for allegedly killing seven babies who prosecutors say were delivered alive as part of a late-term abortion procedure. He is accused of snipping their spinal cords with scissors after delivery or directing his workers to do it. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

"It was literally a beheading," unlicensed medical-school graduate Stephen Massof, who worked at Gosnell’s clinic, testified earlier this month. "It is separating the brain from the body."

Philadelphia District Attorney via AP

Karnamaya Mongar, shown here with her husband, died after a 2009 abortion at Kermit Gosnell's clinic.

Gosnell is also charged with third-degree murder in the 2009 death of Karnamaya Mongar, a Nepalese refugee who prosecutors say was killed by an overdose of pain medication prescribed by Gosnell, and he faces a host of lesser charges related to the clinic operation. 

A 2011 grand jury report alleges that Gosnell was responsible for the deaths of many more viable fetuses but could not be charged because the records had been destroyed. The report also claims that other women died or were injured because of his negligence.

What is Gosnell's defense?

The prosecution is still laying out its case, but in opening statements, the doctor's lawyer said Gosnell was the victim of a "prosecutorial lynching."

Defense attorney Jack McMahon said he will prove that none of the fetuses were born alive, contradicting the testimony of staffers who said they were moving or breathing after delivery.

He plans to argue that Mongar was doomed by a bronchial condition she did not report and had taken a tuberculosis drug in a possible attempt to self-abort.

McMahon told the jury that for a high-volume clinic, the complication rate was below average and that Gosnell was providing a crucial service to an impoverished community.

"Just because the place was less than state-of-the-art doesn't make him a murderer," the defense lawyer said.

"This is a targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing but give to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia."

It's unclear if Gosnell will testify. A gag order in the case prevents both sides from speaking outside the courtroom.

What else does the grand jury report say?

The 300-page document describes a horror show where abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy -- illegal in Pennsylvania and many other states -- were regularly performed in a filthy facility that reeked of cat urine, was splattered with blood and littered with unsterile instruments and broken-down equipment.

Matt Rourke / AP, file

The Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia.

Untrained, unlicensed staff performed much of the work, from administering narcotics to severing spinal cords, the report said. Gosnell only showed up in the evenings -- and on Sundays, when he terminated the most-advanced pregnancies with the assistance of his wife, Pearl, the grand jury found.

Gosnell trained his staff to do ultrasounds a certain way to make fetuses look smaller, but some were breathing and moving when delivered, staff testified. One recalled that after Gosnell snipped the neck of one born at 30 weeks, he joked that it was big enough to "walk to the bus stop." 

Aborted fetuses and their body parts were stockpiled throughout Gosnell’s clinic in cabinets and freezers, in plastic bags, bottles, even cat-food containers. Jars with severed feet lined shelves, prosecutors said. "It was a baby charnel house," the grand jury concluded. 

The grand jury and prosecutors allege the motive was profit: They say the clinic took in $10,000 to $15,000 a night, much of it in cash, and the later the pregnancy, the higher the fee charged. Gosnell also charged women a premium for pain medication that would fully sedate them, the report said. They found $250,000 in cash in his home after a raid.

Is anyone else charged?

Prosecutors charged nine others who worked at the clinic with crimes ranging from perjury to murder. Eight have pleaded guilty and many of them have testified or are expected to take the stand against Gosnell. 

Four of them -- Massof, and assistants Adrienne Moton, Sherry West, and Lynda Williams -- pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.

Gosnell's wife, Pearl, pleaded guilty to performing an illegal late-term abortion.

Among those not charged is Ashley Williams, the daughter of receptionist Tina Baldwin, who was a 15-year-old high-school student when Gosnell hired her to perform ultrasounds, sedate patients and sit with women while they aborted overnight, the grand jury report said.

Only one of the workers, unlicensed medical-school graduate Eileen O'Neill, is on trial with Gosnell, facing charges that include false billing and racketeering. She has pleaded not guilty.

What led to Gosnell's arrest?

Authorities say that in addition to the women’s clinic, Gosnell ran a "family medicine" clinic that had morphed over time into a Oxycontin prescription mill. Gosnell has pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges in that case.

After the Drug Enforcement Administration and others began looking into the drug allegations, the probe uncovered the details of Mongar's death, the grand jury report said. A February 2010 raid revealed the "deplorable" conditions inside, report said.

The remains of 45 fetuses were turned over to the medical examiner, and the grand jury said he determined three of them had probably been viable. However, on the stand this week, the medical examiner said he could not be certain any had been born alive and had to estimate how old they were.

Why didn't authorities find out earlier?

The grand jury report skewers the Pennsylvania Department of Health for not inspecting the clinic, the Department of State for failing to notice a pattern of disturbing complications emanating from the clinic, and the Department of Public Health for not issuing violations after an inspection. It also faults local hospitals that treated women for complications after abortions for not working to get the clinic shut down.

The Associated Press contributed to this story

Dr. Kermit Gosnell in an undated photo released by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office.

PHILADELPHIA -- Three years after drug agents searching a suspected "pill mill" at a West Philadelphia clinic instead found a medical "house of horrors," an abortion doctor is going on trial on eight counts of murder.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, the clinic owner, is charged with killing a pregnant refugee and seven viable newborns. He also faces a separate federal trial on prescription drug charges.

Gosnell, who has pleaded not guilty, saw himself as a medical missionary in the blighted neighborhood where he worked and lived for 40 years. His Women's Medical Center treated the poor, immigrants, teens and women with late-stage pregnancies who could not get abortions elsewhere.

"I feel in the long term I will be vindicated," Gosnell told the Philadelphia Daily News in a March 2010 interview, a month after the federal drug raid. "I aspire to perfection, certainly for my patients."

But some of those patients were left with infections, perforated bowels and other injuries after barbaric abortions were performed by untrained, unlicensed staff, according to numerous lawsuits and a lengthy 2011 grand jury report. And 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar lost her life there in 2009.

Jury selection starts Monday in the death penalty case. All but one of the nine clinic workers arrested with Gosnell have pleaded guilty, three of them to third-degree murder, which carries a potential 20- to 40-year prison sentence.

Unlicensed doctor Steven Massof of Pittsburgh told the grand jury that he used scissors to snip the spines of more than 100 babies born alive. He worked for Gosnell for a few hundred dollars a week. He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the deaths of two babies allegedly stabbed by Gosnell while Massof assisted with the abortions.

Gag order
Gosnell's third wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist, pleaded guilty to performing an illegal, late-term abortion and other charges. She does not have to testify, but other co-defendants have said they would.

It's not clear if Gosnell plans to testify, because a gag order has been issued in the case. But it's possible, given his posture in the Daily News interview.

"Many times people have not been able to fully pay me for my services," Gosnell said. "As a principle, I have not refused to provide them care."

Yet he made millions over the years, both from abortions and a thriving side practice where staffers allegedly dispensed his pre-signed prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet and other highly addictive painkillers.

Related federal drug charges await Gosnell after the murder trial, which is expected to last several weeks. Opening statements are scheduled for March 14.

It's not clear if Pennsylvania jurors have ever been asked to send a man of Gosnell's age or occupation to death row. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called Gosnell's macabre medical clinic — where agents found fetal body parts in glass jars and staff refrigerators, and patient rooms filthy and blood-stained — a "house of horrors."

"Dr. Gosnell is never going to get the death penalty," defense attorney Jack McMahon said early on, noting his client's age and the cost of protracted capital cases.

The gag order now prevents McMahon from commenting about the case. But he met with Gosnell at the courthouse on Thursday, with prosecutors and the trial judge nearby, in what some viewed as late-hour plea discussions.

Mongar's family has a civil suit pending over her death. The 4-foot-11 woman from Bhutan — who did not speak English — died after allegedly receiving lethal doses of sedatives and painkillers from Gosnell's untrained workers.

She and her husband and three children had survived 20 years in refugee camps before settling in rural Virginia. She was referred to Gosnell's clinic to seek a second-term abortion.

Medical technician Sherry West, during her plea to third-degree murder and other charges, admitted she may have administered drugs to Mongar while Gosnell was off-site.

"She's very sorry about the death of that young lady," defense lawyer Michael Wallace said after her plea. "She got caught up in a series of things that probably she did not realize the significance of."