1.11.2007
Someone get James Kopp a new dictionary
click on the map, then click on a state to see a history of abortion clinic violence
- desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness: the malice and spite of a lifelong enemy
- Law: evil intent on the part of a person who commits a wrongful act injurious to others.
Premeditation:
- an act or instance of premeditating.
- Law. sufficient forethought to impute deliberation and intent to commit the act.
On the evening of October 23, 1998, anti-choice terrorist James Kopp* laid in wait in the woods behind Dr. Barnett Slepian’s home with a high-powered military rifle equipped with telescopic sights. Dr. Slepian and his family had just arrived home from his father’s funeral; when Slepian passed in front of a kitchen window, Kopp fired the shot that killed him—in full view of Slepian’s wife and two of their four children.
In Federal Court on Tuesday, Kopp apologized to Lynne Slepian for murdering her husband. In an effort to save his own ass from serving a mandatory life sentence, Kopp (acting as his own counsel), defended himself against murder charges by arguing that he didn’t mean to kill the doctor, only maim him. According to Kopp, since he’s so very, very sorry, and he surely never thought that shooting someone in the shoulder with a military rifle could possibly kill them, he is totally and completely innocent of these silly murder charges.
Earlier Tuesday, Kopp used his opening statement to tell jurors that Slepian's death was "a full-bore, 100 percent tragedy" but was not murder because it was not malicious or premeditated.
Kopp has acknowledged planning the shooting for a year and then firing a high-powered military rifle with telescopic sights from the woods behind the Slepian home, but he has said he meant only to wound the doctor to prevent him from performing abortions."Shoot them in the head, blow up a car, riddle their body with bullets like they do in the movies. That's how you kill someone" with premeditation, Kopp said.
He urged jurors to look for evidence of premeditation or malice toward Slepian. "If you don't see it, that's me proving my case," he said.
Apparently, intent to do harm and a year's worth of planning are lost on Kopp. As the old adage goes, a man who represents himself will have a fool for a client.
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*And I will damn well call him a terrorist. He’s a member of Army of God, whose other members include Eric Rudolph and Clayton Waagner. AOG "Chaplain" Michael Bray has also spoken approvingly of the public beheadings of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia. How very pro-life of him.
Labels: Fundies Say The Darndest Things, Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries
annamaria at 12:40 PM
3 Comments
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at Friday, January 12, 2007 10:21:00 AM
Wake of the Flood said... You won't get an argument from me that Kopp's acts are intended to provoke terror. And, changing the subject to a related issue, we use our criminal law to deal with him and the organization he's connected with. And we can't do the same with al-Quada terrorists? It's a war because there are more of them than there are anti-abortion terrorists?
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at Friday, January 12, 2007 10:33:00 AM
annamaria said...
Wake said:
It's a war because there are more of them than there are anti-abortion terrorists?
I don't really need to tell you that I'm nodding my head in agreement, right?
Of course, there have been more acts of terror from anti-choice groups like Army of God in the US than any Islamic groups. Remember, the anthrax letters? Yep, those were from AOG member Clayton Waagner, not al-Qaeda.-
at Saturday, January 13, 2007 9:28:00 AM
Wake of the Flood said...
The only folks who like Gitmo are the ones who don't understand that our best national security is the rule of law.
