The trial of anti-abortion extremist James Kopp who confessed to the sniper-style killing of a Buffalo, NY obstetrician/gynecologist and abortion provider is set to begin on February 24. Kopp, who confessed to the 1998 killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian and is suspected in four other nonfatal shootings of doctors, is currently being held in a Buffalo jail after he evaded authorities for two-and-a-half years.
A group of anti-abortion extremists who believe that killing abortion providers is “justifiable homicide” plan to show their allegiance to Kopp and his actions in a Buffalo rally on January 22 – the 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. The rally, which will be attended by about 25 people, is intended to convince potential jurors that Kopp’s actions were justifiable, Jonathan O’Toole, a known extremist who is organizing the rally told the Buffalo News.
Other known extremists who plan to be in attendance include Neal Horsley – who has created several anti-abortion Web sites including the Nuremberg Files that lists the names of doctors who perform abortions and crosses them out when they are killed by radical anti-abortionists and Abortioncams.com that posts the pictures of women entering abortion clinics – Stephen Wetzel of Missionaries to the Unborn, and Chuck Spingola, an Ohio street preacher. Horsley recently released a communique regarding the Jan. 22 rally that reads: “Forces are being deployed with the power to stop any child of God from being legally slaughtered in Buffalo, NY on January 22, 2003,” from the “Commander in Chief, Army of God, USA.”
Kopp killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998 while he was fixing dinner inside his home. DNA evidence has been found to link Kopp to the attempted murder of Canadian doctor Dr. Hugh Short, who was shot in his home in 1995. Kopp also is the prime suspect in the sniper-style shootings of three other abortion providers – Dr. Garson Romalis, shot in his Vancouver home in 1994; the October 1997 shooting of a Perinton, NY doctor, whose name has been withheld by police; and the November 1997 shooting of Dr. Jack Fainman in his Winnipeg, NY home.
