A jury found John Salvi guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in what is called the worst case of anti-abortion violence in U.S. history. Salvi will spend a mandatory life sentence in jail with no chance of parole. The jury of six men and six women was sequestered upon completion of five weeks of testimony and began deliberating on March 16. After nine hours, jurors rejected the defense’s claim that Salvi was insane at the time of the killings.
On December 30, 1994, Salvi shot and killed Shannon Lowney, 25 and Lee Ann Nichols, 38, receptionists at the Planned Parenthood and Preterm Health Services clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts. Salvi wounded five others in the attacks at the clinics where he had previously protested, and he was convicted on five charges of assault.
