Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer Dvd

Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer is a 2018 American drama film based on real life events about Kermit Gosnell, a physician and abortion provider who was convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive, involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient undergoing an abortion procedure, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating a 24-hour informed consent law. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The film was announced in 2014. Funds for its production were raised via crowdfunding, in which $2.4 million was raised for the creation of the film. The film was directed by Nick Searcy, from a screenplay by Andrew Klavan which was in turn based on the book of the same name written by Irish filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. It stars Earl Billings and Dean Cain. After difficulties finding a distributor willing to carry the film and a lawsuit by a judge who objected to his portrayal in the film, the producers signed a distribution deal with GVN Releasing.It was released in approximately 650 theaters across the United States on October 12, 2018.

Plot

The film focuses on the police investigation and trial of Kermit Gosnell. The film draws from the book Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer.

During an investigation into a prescription pill mill run by Dr. Kermit Gosnell, Detective James “Woody” Wood learns that a woman had died at the clinic after being administered narcotics without a doctor on the premises. Woody believes that the woman, Karnamaya Mongar, is a homicide victim who deserves justice. He and his partner, Detective Stark, accompany the Drug Enforcement Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation on a raid of Gosnell’s clinic.

The officers are shocked by conditions inside the clinic, where cats roam and defecate freely and Gosnell is nowhere to be seen although the patients are drugged up for their abortions. As Woody and Stark search the clinic for evidence regarding Karnamaya Mongar, they discover the frozen remains of what look to them like babies, not fetuses.

Woody engages the support of Assistant District Attorney Lexy McGuire. They uncover a disturbing truth: Gosnell had been performing illegal late-term abortions by having his untrained staff drug patients into a stupor then administer drugs to induce labor. The patients would deliver live babies that Gosnell and his staff would then kill by “snipping” their spines with surgical scissors. Most shocking of all, Lexy learns that health officials deliberately turned a blind eye to the goings-on in Gosnell’s clinic.

The trial hinges on the difference between late abortions performed legally and the abortions Gosnell performed. The prosecution focuses on the fact that the babies that Gosnell killed were not legally aborted while in the womb; they were delivered alive and then killed. Lexy enters a photo of “Baby Boy A,” the largest of those babies, into evidence. Gosnell’s defense attorney focuses on the gruesome and shocking nature of legally performed late abortions and asserts that Gosnell is a victim of a racist Catholic crusade against a Black man performing legal services to minority women.

In the end, the jury finds Gosnell guilty of most of the charges against him, including the murder of Baby Boy A.

Cast

Dean Cain as Detective James Wood
Janine Turner as Dr. North
Sarah Jane Morris as Assistant District Attorney, Lexy McGuire
Michael Beach as District Attorney, Dan Molinari
Nick Searcy as Gosnell’s defense attorney, Mike Cohan
Earl Billings as Kermit Gosnell
Cyrina Fiallo as Molly Mullaney
Alfonzo Rachel as Detective Stark
Dominique Deon as Betty Goodwin