Deadly Medicine

After three days of deliberations, jurors found Orville Lynne Majors guilty of killing six of his patients, reports CBS News Correspondent Drew Levinson.

During the five-week long trial, prosecutors maintained the former nurse gave lethal injections of epinephrine and potassium chloride to seven patients while working at the Vermillion County Hospital in the early 1990's.

The jury could not come to a verdict on the seventh murder count.

According to a police affidavit, while Majors was on duty, a death occurred every 23 hours. While he was off duty, a death occurred every 551 hours.

Majors, 38, has repeatedly denied the crimes, saying, "I would never do anything to shorten anyone's life. I'm not God."

His attorneys repeatedly speculated that all seven patients died of natural causes.

The defense even called family doctors of several patients as witnesses. The doctors told jurors their patients died from the illnesses that brought them to the hospital.

Prosecutors built their case around the fact that Majors was present, and often alone, when each patient died. They also presented as evidence vials of potassium chloride and syringes found by Indiana State Police investigators at a house Majors once lived in.

Jurors never saw statistical studies that linked Majors to as many as 130 of 147 deaths at the hospital. Special Judge Ernest Yelton, fearing the deluge of information would overwhelm the jury and bog down the trial, didn't allow prosecutors to use the studies.

Even though Indiana has the death penalty, Majors apparently won't be facing a lethal injection of his own. He could be sentenced to life in prison.

The judge set sentencing for Nov. 15. Defense attorneys said they plan to appeal the decision.