By Dave Warner
PHILADELPHIA, May 13 (Reuters) - A Philadelphia jury began its 10th day of deliberations on Monday in the murder trial of a doctor accused of killing babies and a patient during late-term abortions at a clinic that served low-income women.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-closed Women's Medical Society Clinic, could face the death penalty if convicted by the jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.
The seven-woman, five-man jury heard five weeks of testimony before starting deliberations on April 30.
The jury retired for the day early on Friday afternoon and resumed on Monday at about 8:30 a.m.
Gosnell is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords, prosecutors said.
It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Gosnell also faces charges that he performed 24 abortions after 24 weeks.
Gosnell's defense contends there is no evidence the babies were alive after they were aborted.
Testimony depicted a filthy clinic, serving mostly low-income women in a largely black community.
Gosnell is also charged with murdering Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died from a drug overdose after going to him for an abortion, prosecutors said.
Gosnell has been in jail since his January 2011 arrest.
Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing. They include Gosnell's wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions. (Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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