KOPP COULD TESTIFY, NEW ATTORNEY SUGGESTS

James C. Kopp's new attorney has not ruled out the possibility of the accused killer of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian taking the witness stand when he goes to trial next year.

"I can't rule that out," said Bruce A. Barket, a Long Island attorney and abortion opponent who was approved Tuesday to head Kopp's defense team at Erie County Court. "That hasn't been decided yet."

If he does testify in his own defense, would Kopp reveal what he was doing - and what his motivations were - on the night Slepian was killed?

Barket declined to speculate on defense strategy, or to discuss what Kopp was doing on the night of Oct. 23, 1998.

But the defense lawyer said he firmly believes that the evidence that will come out at trial will show that Kopp is "not guilty" of second-degree murder.

Barket also estimated that by the time the case is over, he will have provided at least $100,000 worth of free legal help to Kopp.

"I think James Kopp should be exonerated, and I think he will be exonerated," Barket said after his first official court proceeding as Kopp's attorney. "He is not guilty of the crimes for which he is charged."

Barket, 43, was approved Tuesday by Judge Michael L. D'Amico as the lead defense attorney for Kopp, who is expected to go to trial in February. Kopp told the judge that he wants Barket to represent him, in place of Buffalo defense attorney Paul J. Cambria Jr.

Many court observers believe the change in attorneys will result in a sharp shift in defense strategy.

Cambria, who declined to reveal his own views on abortion, stated repeatedly since taking the case last year that he would not allow the murder trial to become a forum for debating the rights of the unborn.

In sharp contrast, Barket makes no secret of his pro-life views. Speaking after Tuesday's brief court proceedings, he revealed that he has taken part in legal anti-abortion protests. Barket said he considers abortion a key issue in the upcoming trial.

"Saying this case is not about abortion is like ignoring a large pink elephant in the room," Barket said. "(The case) involves an issue that has polarized the country for decades."

"Abortion is about the taking of innocent life," he added. "What happened to Dr. Slepian and his family was tragic, to say the least. A horrific event."

The chief prosecutor in the murder case, Deputy District Attorney Joseph Marusak, said Barket's entry into the case would not change the prosecution's strategy.

Even if Kopp took the witness stand and made a "self-incriminating statement," Marusak said, the prosecution's chief strategy would be to focus on the evidence.

We're going to treat this as an intentional murder case, regardless of the motivations involved. How noble a defendant may claim his intentions were would have no relevance to our trial preparations," Marusak said.

Marusak's boss, District Attorney Frank J. Clark, said he believes Slepian was "assassinated" by Kopp because he was an abortion provider. Police in Canada have charged Kopp with a shooting that wounded an abortion provider in Hamilton, Ont., and he is considered the prime suspect in three other unsolved shootings aimed at abortion doctors.

Kopp would not be well served by a "defense" that went on about how Kopp thinks abortion and abortionists are "bad, evil etc.". That just gives the prosecution a freebee in establishing his possible motive.

He's much better sticking to a simple "Kopp didn't shoot the guy." And Kopp had better stay off the stand. It is up to the government to prove he did it, and his lawyer should not allow him to help them.

There's an old trial lawyers' maxim, applicable here:
"If you want to 'send a message' call Western Union."

JAMES C. KOPP: A trial about murder LINK
The Buffalo News (editorial)
October 29, 2002
     Anyone who remembers the 1990s must have cringed when they heard that the pending trial of James C. Kopp might become a platform for the pro-life extremists rather than the plain vanilla murder case that it is. This trial cannot become an East Coast version of the O.J. Simpson circus.
     With an unabashedly pro-life lawyer expected to take over from veteran defense attorney Paul Cambria Jr., who has asked to drop out of the case, the trial increasingly looks as though it could tilt into abortion politics. It is a path this trial should not be allowed to follow very far.
     Abortion is a perfectly legitimate item on the public agenda, of course. Decent and intelligent people have radically different ideas on the subject. But the issue here is murder. Unless the defense is going to raise pro-life politics in a way that is germane to the legal issues in dispute - having to do with motive, for example - then it has no role to play in a proceeding with only one question to be answered: Was Kopp the sniper who murdered Amherst doctor Barnett Slepian in his kitchen four years ago last week?
     Defendants do not have carte blanche to raise any issue they want in defending themselves. Defense strategies must be relevant to the trial issues, not to ancillary matters, including abortion. Without that requirement, the right to a vigorous defense would quickly devolve into the right to distract jurors from the central question of guilt or innocence.
     Regardless, the arrival of Long Island defense lawyer Bruce Barket almost certainly signals a change in strategy. While Cambria adamantly refused to turn the trial into a referendum on abortion, Barket seems primed to do just that. "I wouldn't represent someone in a political trial if I strongly disagreed with their politics," he said the other day. "I'm absolutely pro-life. Abortion is an abomination and a scourge on the nation."
     Barket, like everyone, is entitled to strong beliefs on a sensitive subject, but the judges who have been assigned the federal and state cases against Kopp should take the lawyer's comments as a shot across their bow. Erie County Judge Michael D'Amico, who has custody of the state case, and U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara, in charge of the federal proceeding, are both respected as men who control their courtrooms. They may soon have the chance to add to those reputations.

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