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Abortion Foe Set to Die For 2 Murders
TALLAHASSEE — Paul Hill, who justified the shotgun murders of an abortion doctor and an escort as a way to save unborn babies, is scheduled to go to his death Wednesday, becoming the first person in the country to be executed for abortion-clinic terrorism.
Hill isn’t fighting the execution. He wants to die and has proclaimed hope that his death may spur others to violence in a war against abortion. And fringe elements of the anti-abortion movement that condone clinic violence have practically invited such attacks on Web sites that portray Hill as a martyr.
But members of the mainstream anti-abortion movement decry the calls for violence and have tried hard to distance their message from Hill’s. They say Hill is misguided, not a martyr. Still, a broad group of abortion foes and death penalty opponents have called on Gov. Jeb Bush to halt the execution, saying it only continues a cycle of violence. Some say if he receives a lethal injection Wednesday evening as scheduled, Hill’s hopes for more clinic attacks may be realized.
“God forbid somebody says, ‘This person is talking to me,’ ” said Abe Bonowitz, an anti-death penalty advocate.
Hill’s execution approaches amid a swirl of threats not only against clinics but against state officials, including Bush, who signed Hill’s death warrant and vows it will go forward as just punishment. Four letters containing bullets were mailed to three state officials and the judge who sentenced Hill to death, along with warnings about the execution. Police continue to investigate the threats.
Hill, 49, was condemned for the 1994 murders of Dr. John Bayard Britton and his escort, retired Air Force Lt. Col. James Barrett, outside the Ladies Center in Pensacola. Hill also wounded Barrett’s wife, June, in the attack.
A minister, Hill was a wellknown anti-abortion activist before the murders. He circulated a letter in 1993 justifying Michael Griffin’s killing of another Pensacola abortion doctor, Dr. David Gunn. Griffin was sentenced to life in prison.
“We proclaim that whatever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child,” said the letter signed by 30 anti-abortion activists.
Hill promoted his views on national television talk shows and in media interviews and was a frequent protester at The Ladies Center, carrying signs reading “Execute Abortionists and Accessories.”
He also attended the trial in Wichita, Kan., of Rachelle Shannon, who was convicted of wounding an abortion doctor in a shooting there. Hill said later that was when he started thinking about who should step forward to continue a quest to rid the country of abortion doctors.
“I was praying the Lord would raise someone up to that capacity,” Hill said in a 1994 interview. “And then I realized I might have been the one I was praying for.”
Two days before the slaying, Hill bought a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun and spent two days practicing at a gun range. In the early morning hours of July 29, Hill hid the gun in hedges outside the clinic. Strapped to his body were 22 additional rounds of buckshot and slugs.
About 7:30 a.m., Britton and the Barretts entered the clinic parking lot in a pickup truck. When James Barrett left the truck, Hill fired four shots, blasting him in the face and upper body.
Hill then reloaded and fired three more shots. He knew Britton was wearing a bulletproof vest, so he aimed carefully. “I was shooting right at his head,” Hill said.
Mrs. Barrett hid on the floor of the truck and was wounded in the arm.
When Hill finished shooting, he put down the gun and walked away. When he was arrested a short time later, he said, “I know one thing, no innocent babies are going to be killed in that clinic today.”
Nearly a decade later, Hill still sees his cause as just and is ready to die, said Hill’s longtime friend Donald Spitz, who shares Hill’s views and has been visiting him every day in prison.
“He’s totally ready. He’s 100 percent willing,” Spitz said. “He’s ready to give his life for the babies.”
Spitz and some other antiabortion activists — even some of those who disagree with Hill’s actions — do not believe he should have been convicted of murder. He wasn’t allowed to use a “justifiable homicide” defense to argue that he was acting to prevent “murder.”
“Instead of being recognized for the good deeds he did, he is the one being murdered for saving their lives,” Spitz said.
Hill was his own lawyer at trial and called no witnesses and asked no questions.
On Nov. 2, 1994, a jury took 20 minutes to unanimously convict Hill of murder and attempted murder. It took nearly four hours to choose between recommending the death penalty and life in prison without parole.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and death sentence in 1996 and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down an appeal in 1997. Hill has not filed any other appeals.
Hill’s surviving victim, June Barrett, 77, who moved from Pensacola to a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md., said she was pleased Bush had signed Hill’s death warrant.
Barrett, who remains involved in abortion-rights groups, told the Pensacola News Journal she had not decided whether she would return to witness the execution or whether it would help resolve her lingering grief. “I feel like I’d like to be involved,” she said.
Abortion and death-penalty opponents are expected outside Florida State Prison near Starke on Wednesday before Hill’s scheduled execution.
Milwaukee, Wis., evangelist Drew Heiss, an anti-abortion activist who plans to be in Starke, wrote to Bush to protest the execution: “I must proclaim that you and the state of Florida are making a great mistake in executing a righteous man. . . . One day, history will honor Paul Hill as a great man. He is a man of courage and a man of sacrifice.”
Mainstream abortion opponents have downplayed the possibility of Hill’s execution spurring more violence and say extremists who condone killing doctors hurt their movement.
“I don’t see copycats. I don’t see Paul Hill really becoming a martyr,” said Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League.
Those making threats are “grandstanders trying to get a little attention,” Scheidler said. “Those are people that are really doing all of us a disservice.”
Associated Press writer Ron Word in Jacksonville contributed to this report.
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