Gosnell pleads guilty to 12 counts of drug distribution
Gosnell's clinic. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Dr. Kermit Gosnell pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to 12 felony counts of distributing controlled substances.
Gosnell is already serving three consecutive life sentences for delivering and then killing three babies at his former West Philadelphia abortion clinic.
He had previously rejected a plea deal that would have earned him a lesser sentence because he did not want to plead guilty to charges of distributing controlled substances near schools.
This plea deal, which dropped those charges, does not include a sentencing recommendation.
U.S. Attorney Joan Burnes says that Gosnell is the last of eight defendants convicted of federal drug trafficking charges in the “pill-mill” case. The other seven were staffers at Gosnell’s clinic.
“Another doctor has learned that a license to practice medicine is not a license to illegally distribute drugs like a drug dealer,” Burnes said.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 4.
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