BUFFALO, N.Y. - Militant abortion opponent James Kopp was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison plus 10 years on federal charges for the 1998 murder of a doctor who performed abortions.
Prosecutors had asked for consecutive life sentences for Kopp, who was convicted in 2003 on a charge of second-degree murder for Barnett Slepian's death. Kopp showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
He wore an orange prison jump suit and held what looked like a yellow, plastic rosary.
He spoke for a full hour, rambling between legal cases and his personal feelings about abortion.
He insisted he never meant to kill Slepian, only to wound him, but that the bullets took an unexpected path.
"Tragic, horrible ricochet. That's how he died," Kopp said.
In January, a federal jury convicted him on related charges that he violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act by killing an abortion provider. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Mehltretter also asked for a life sentence on the count of using a firearm - in this case a scope-equipped military assault rifle.
Kopp, 52, was given life on the first charge and 10 years on the weapons charge.
Lynne Slepian read from a statement that she said was on behalf of her and her four sons, all of whom were sitting in the courtroom's front row. The boys were between seven and 15 when their father was killed.
"I want Mr. Kopp to go to jail knowing he killed a wonderful man."
She referred to the other anti-abortion extremists like Kopp who are still out there.
"We should all be very, very afraid that this sick mentality of James Kopp and his followers still exists."
"There are too many people who believe that what James Kopp did was not a crime, but a calling."
In her sentencing memo, Mehltretter wrote: "Dr. Slepian was gunned down in front of two of his children and his wife. A third child tried to help stem the flow of blood until paramedics arrived. For the survivors, the horror of the gun shot and seeing a loved one killed will remain with them forever."
Slepian was shot through a window of their home on Oct. 23, 1998.
Kopp, nicknamed "Atomic Dog," had been arrested more than 100 times protesting abortion. He is suspected in the nonfatal shootings of four other doctors, three in Canada and one in Rochester, and is charged with attempted murder in the 1995 shooting of Dr. Hugh Short in Ancaster, Ont.
Canadian authorities have expressed interest in prosecuting Kopp, but he would have to finish his U.S. sentences first.
Judge Richard Arcara received letters from at least eight Kopp supporters seeking leniency for Kopp, 52.
In a letter to the judge, Kopp wrote that several children are alive today because of Slepian's death. He used that claim to object to the US$2.6 million in restitution prosecutors are seeking for Slepian's widow.
After shooting Slepian, Kopp fled to Mexico, Ireland and finally France, where he was captured in March 2001. He was added to the FBI's list of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives in June 1999.
