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James Charles Kopp

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James Charles Kopp (b. August 2, 1954, in Pasadena, California), a Hero to Pro-Lifers, was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a New York state physician who performed abortions. Prior to his capture, Kopp was on the FBI's list of ten most wanted criminals.

On October 23, 1998, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Dr. Barnett Slepian was killed as he stood in the kitchen of his home in Amherst, New York. A single gunshot, which entered the Slepian home through a rear window, was fired 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.

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 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. The instruction chamber of the Rennes court of appeals ruled in favor of extradition; however, Kopp appealed the ruling. In May 2002, Kopp waived all possible appeals in France and agreed to return to the US, where he returned in June.

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."[1]

Kopp had not been on the lam on his own. He received help from sympathetic 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.

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.[3]

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