I'm keeping my very own Nuremberg website and look forward to drawing a
black line through this name.Also Neil Horsley if you see this.
'Religious Terrorism' Cited at NY Abortion Trial
Mon March 17, 2003 07:11 PM ET
By Gary Wiepert
BUFFALO, N.Y. (Reuters) - Anti-abortion militant James Kopp performed
"religious terrorism" when he shot a Buffalo, New York, doctor
in 1998, a prosecutor alleged at his murder trial on Monday, but Kopp's
lawyer argued he did not intend to kill.
The trial proceeded in front of a judge alone in Erie County Court in
Buffalo after Kopp made a surprise switch in legal strategy last week,
waiving his right to a jury trial for the murder of
obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Barnett Slepian.
"He thinks he is serving some higher power, but this is religious
terrorism," prosecutor Joe Marusak told the court in summarizing the
state's case. Marusak added mockingly of Kopp, a devout Roman Catholic,
"Say Grace and pass the ammunition."
Judge Michael D'Amico was scheduled to announce a verdict at 2 p.m. on
Tuesday.
The Oct. 23, 1998, shooting of Slepian in his suburban Amherst, New York,
home near Buffalo on the Canadian border focused renewed attention on
abortion rights in the United States and led to a global manhunt for the
killer.
Kopp, 48, fled the country and was arrested in France in March 2001 after
2-1/2 years on the run. He was extradited to the United States last year
only after France was assured he would not face the death penalty.
Defense lawyer Bill Barket said Kopp, who admitted in an interview last
November with the Buffalo News to shooting Slepian, did not intend to
kill the doctor. Slepian performed abortions and provided other medical
services to women.
"Jim killed him because Dr. Slepian was going to perform an abortion
the following day," Barket said. "He wanted to injure him
because he was acting in the defense of the unborn living."
MURDER CHARGES
Kopp is charged with second-degree murder and murder with depraved
indifference for human life. Each conviction carries a maximum sentence
of 25 years to life imprisonment.
Under the terms of the bench trial, prosecutors went through a 35-page
list of facts outlining the ballistic and other evidence against Kopp,
and his lawyers argued their legal interpretation of the document.
By changing to a trial by judge, Kopp gave up the right to testify or
call witnesses and eliminated the possibility a jury might find him
guilty of manslaughter.
The evidence included the discovery of a modified Russian-made SKS
semiautomatic rifle with a scope in the woods behind Slepian's home and a
receipt under one of several aliases used by Kopp as he protested
abortion nationwide.
When the court heard evidence of an expert witness describing how the
bullet entered Slepian's upper left back as he stood in his kitchen,
Slepian's widow, Lynne Slepian, closed her eyes and gulped. Kopp did not
look directly at the Slepian family in court.
Barket said initially he wanted the trial to be a debate about abortion.
Slepian was among seven people killed in attacks on clinics or doctors
from 1993 to 1998, underscoring that a woman's constitutional right to
choose an abortion remains an intensely charged issue in the United
States.
Kopp pleaded not guilty in court on Dec. 17 and faces a federal trial at
a later date on charges of interfering with the right to an abortion. He
has also been charged with the nonfatal shooting of a doctor in
Canada.
