James Charles Kopp

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James Charles Kopp, 1997
James Charles Kopp, 1997

James Charles Kopp (born in Pasadena, California on August 2, 1954) is an American terrorist who was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a Buffalo, New York physician who legally performed abortions. Prior to his capture, Kopp was on the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. On June 7, 1999 he had become the 455th fugitive placed on the list by the FBI. He was affiliated with anti-abortion group "The Lambs of Christ." He is number 25 in Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.

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[edit] Barnett Slepian

On October 23, 1998, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Kopp murdered Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was standing in the kitchen of his home in Amherst, New York. Kopp fired a single gunshot, which entered the Slepian home through a rear window, from a wooded area behind the residence. Dr. Slepian was a well-known obstetrician-gynecologist who performed legal abortions at a women's clinic in Buffalo, New York. He also maintained a private medical practice in an office in Amherst, New York.

[edit] Flight

Kopp fled to Mexico, then to Ireland. He eventually went to live in France under a false identity.

On March 29, 2001, Kopp was arrested by French law enforcement in the French town of Dinan (Brittany), and jailed. The United States requested his extradition and Attorney General John Ashcroft promised that the death penalty would not be sought, handed down or applied, a prerequisite according to the extradition treaty between France and the US, despite the fact that the murder charge Kopp faced was a state charge over which Ashcroft had no jusridiction and that he did so over the objections of New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer and Erie County district attorney Frank Clark, both of whom sought the death penalty. The instruction chamber of the Rennes court of appeals ruled in favor of extradition; however, Kopp appealed the ruling.

[edit] Return to the United States

In May 2002, Kopp waived all possible appeals in France and agreed to return to the US, which he did in June.

[edit] Conviction

On March 11, 2003, Kopp surprised observers by waiving his right to a jury trial. Based upon an agreement between the defense and prosecution, Erie County Judge Michael D'Amico would be required to find Kopp guilty or innocent based on a single document of facts. In addition, the judge could not consider lesser charges; he would have to find Kopp guilty or not guilty of second-degree murder. Since Kopp had confessed his role in the shooting to police (claiming that he only meant to wound Slepian) Judge D'Amico found him guilty and sentenced him to the maximum, 25 years to life, on May 9, 2003, telling Kopp "It's clear the act is premeditated; there is no doubt about it. You made an attempt to avoid responsibility for the act. What may appear righteous to you is immoral to someone else" (see [1]). The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, upheld the conviction on July 7, 2006.

As of December, 2006, Kopp is also charged in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on a count of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The trial is currently scheduled to begin on January 8, 2007, and could bring an additional life term in prison. Kopp has dismissed his court-assigned attorney, an assistant federal public defender, and is representing himself.

It is possible that the killing of Slepian was not Kopp's only crime. The FBI notes "(t)he shooting was similar to shootings in Rochester, New York, and three Canadian cities during the fall of 1997, in which abortion doctors were shot in their homes."[2] Kopp has been charged by Canadian authorities in the 1995 shooting of Ontario doctor Hugh Short, one of a string of Remembrance Day shootings (see [3]).

Kopp is currently serving in Niagara County Jail in Lockport, New York.[4][5] Kopp will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement, locked up 23 hours a day in the nation's most secure prison if he insists on a trial and is convicted. If he pleads guilty, he will be sentenced to a medium-security federal prison.[6]

[edit] Abettors

Kopp had not been evading justice on his own. He received help from sympathetic Roman Catholic anti-abortion activists Loretta Marra and Dennis Malvasi, who accepted a plea bargain on April 15, 2003, and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy in helping Kopp avoid capture. On August 21, 2003, they were sentenced to time served and released.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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