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Buffalo, N.Y. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors sought two life sentences Tuesday for a militant abortion opponent already serving 25 years to life for murdering a doctor who performed abortions. James Kopp's sentencing in U.S. District Court will bring to a close a case that began nearly nine years ago with the sniper-style slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian in the kitchen of his suburban Amherst home. Kopp was convicted in 2003 on a state charge of second-degree murder for Slepian's death and sentenced to prison. In January, a federal jury convicted him on related charges that he violated the Freedom of...

An attorney for James Kopp says the federal government should drop its prosecution of him for killing an abortion provider because he's already likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. Public defender John Humann is also challenging the constitutionality of the federal law under which Kopp is charged. The arguments were made in papers filed last week in U-S District Court, where Kopp is awaiting trial in the 1998 shotgun slaying of Doctor Barnett Slepian in his suburban Amherst home. Kopp is serving 25 years to life in prison after being convicted of state-filed murder charges last...

He insisted he is not a murderer. He swore that he shot Dr. Barnett A. Slepian only because he was trying to wound him and prevent him from aborting unborn babies. But after listening to James C. Kopp's story for 90 minutes Friday, a judge gave him the maximum sentence for the 1998 assassination of the Amherst physician and abortion provider. Saying he disputes Kopp's claim that he did not intend to kill Slepian, Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico sentenced the 48-year-old anti-abortion activist to 25 years to life in prison. D'Amico said he found it "inconceivable" that Kopp...

James C. Kopp likely will be sent to prison today for the maximum term of 25 years to life for the murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Even Kopp's attorney expects nothing less. Kopp, who killed Slepian in his Amherst home with a single bullet from a high-powered military rifle, will speak in his own behalf for the first time in court. Lynne Slepian, who has been in court for every proceeding since Kopp's arrest in March 2001, may also speak in court for the first time since her husband's death. She and three of the couple's four children are...

The eyes of the nation and the world will be on Buffalo tomorrow, when the confessed killer of Dr. Barnett Slepian is expected to make a statement. It's the most high profile case in recent memory in Erie County. Security will be tight for James Kopp's sentencing tomorrow, but Sheriff Patrick Gallivan expects no problems: "There's no threats. There's no real extra concern that there will be a problem, but we're not meeting our obligation if we don't take every precaution," Gallivan said. It took four and a half years to get to this point, and there have been several...

Abortion foes Loretta C. Marra and Dennis J. Malvasi accepted a plea deal in a New York City courtroom Tuesday that guarantees they will spend no more than five years in prison for helping James C. Kopp while he was a fugitive. Attorneys for the Brooklyn couple say they will try to persuade the judge that Marra and Malvasi should be granted a substantial downward departure in the federal sentencing guidelines to obtain their early release. Marra and Malvasi also will make another try for bail while they are awaiting their July 11 sentencing by U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley...

She is the mystery woman in the case of James C. Kopp and sniper attacks on abortion doctors. Loretta C. Marra, a 39-year-old mother of two from Brooklyn, has been an important part of Kopp's crusade against abortion since 1990, when they were first arrested together at a women's clinic in Vermont. It was Marra's car, according to police, that was seen near Vancouver, British Columbia, before and after the shooting of a Canadian abortion doctor in 1994, an attack that many believe was done by Kopp. When Kopp fled to Mexico after killing Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, authorities said...

Slaying of Amherst doctor intentional, judge rules.James C. Kopp intentionally murdered Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, a judge ruled Tuesday, ending the debate about whether Kopp was right to use the defense that he shot Slepian but did not mean to kill him. Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico sealed Kopp's future with a single sentence, without explanation, as judges often do in nonjury trials. D'Amico, by convicting Kopp of intentional murder, never had to consider the second count of depraved indifference to human life. The second murder charge was added after Kopp's November confession to The Buffalo News. "After very...

Is James C. Kopp a religious zealot and coldblooded assassin who meant to kill Dr. Barnett A. Slepian? Or is he a deeply moral man who intended to only wound Slepian to stop him from performing abortions? Kopp, 48, a longtime abortion protester, was described both ways Monday as he finally had his day in court, a very unusual day in court. It was a trial without witnesses, without testimony, as prosecutors read aloud a 35-page summary of the evidence agreed to by both the defense and the prosecution. Many of the events had previously been described piecemeal - either...

James C. Kopp won't have anything to say Monday during his one-day trial in Erie County Court for the assassination of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. No one will testify. There will be no witnesses. It now appears likely he won't have anything to say in U.S. District Court, either. By shooting Slepian, he faces federal charges of obstructing access to an abortion clinic. Legal sources also expect a nonjury trial in federal court - using evidence agreed to by the prosecution and defense - similar to Monday's trial before County Judge Michael L. D'Amico. Or they expect some other resolution...

No witnesses will testify; judge will hand down verdict in Slepian killing James C. Kopp rejected the advice from two of his three lawyers and even the judge Tuesday, giving up his right to let a jury decide the evidence against him in the October 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. And Kopp, in an even more unusual move, agreed to give up his right to a traditional trial. Kopp said he wants the judge - Michael L. D'Amico of Erie County Court - to find him innocent or guilty based on a 30-page summary of the evidence prepared...

A jury trial that could have lasted as long as a month now could be over in less than a day. James Kopp is waiving his right to have a 12-member jury decide his fate. Instead, Erie County Court Judge Michael D'Amico will decide whether Kopp is guilty in the murder of Amherst abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian. Kopp was indicted on two charges: intentional murder and murder by impraved indifference. there would be no witnesses taking the stand, all of the evidence presented by the prosecution would be agreed to by the defense. Attorneys on both sides see a...

James C. Kopp already has removed the mystery of who shot Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Will he now short-circuit his murder trial by agreeing to a stipulated set of facts and asking the judge, not a jury, to hear the case? Legal sources close to the case say that such an announcement could come today when Kopp returns to the courtroom of Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico. But neither Kopp's attorney, Bruce A. Barket, nor Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark, citing a gag order in the case, would comment on what was expected to happen. However, they...

As jury selection begins, questionnaires look for signs of bias on volatile pointsProspective jurors in the murder trial of James C. Kopp are being asked whether their views on the issue of abortion would affect their objectivity in the case. Jury selection began in earnest Monday morning in the trial of Kopp, 48, who is charged with the October 1998 sniper slaying of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, an obstetrician/gynecologist and abortion provider, who was shot as he stood in his Amherst home. Out of a potential jury pool of 500, 150 people filed through the courtroom of Erie County Judge...

Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico has cleared the start of jury selection for James C. Kopp's murder trial on Monday by rejecting defense motions to throw out search warrants in the case and to dismiss the murder indictment for a variety of causes. D'Amico ruled Friday there was sufficient evidence presented to an Erie County grand jury to indict Kopp on a new charge of murder through a depraved indifference to life in the fatal Oct. 28, 1998, shooting of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. The judge also said there was no evidence that Kopp's second indictment violated the extradition...

A judge ordered jury selection to begin Monday in the state murder trial of James C. Kopp, as attorneys argued whether France would have extradited Kopp under the new indictment prosecutors obtained after his November confession that he fatally shot Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico heard arguments by Kopp's attorney Monday on why he should dismiss indictments against the abortion foe or, at the least, why he should grant two more months before the trial begins to counter possible new evidence. "I'll tell you what, I'm through letting you guys pick the dates," D'Amico said...

An anti-abortion activist admitted Friday that she drove James C. Kopp to Mexico in late 1998 when he was wanted for questioning in the murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Jennifer Rock, 32, said at a court hearing that she helped Kopp who now admits he shot the Amherst abortion provider because she was sure he was the victim of a U.S. Justice Department setup. "I believed he was innocent," said Rock, who came to know Kopp through the right-to-life movement. That trip to Mexico started Kopp on a 52-month trek as a fugitive in England, Scotland, Ireland and France....

James C. Kopp may have confessed - with his lawyer present - to the killing of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, but you wouldn't know it by the court battles that very same attorney is waging. Kopp's attorney is challenging the legality of three FBI searches, a new indictment based on his November confession and whether authorities are violating Kopp's constitutional rights by prosecuting him in both state and federal courts. And the prosecutor in the case said that, by itself, Kopp's confession to The Buffalo News would only prove first-degree manslaughter, not the second-degree murder that he's been charged with...

They call themselves the Army of God, but if Wednesday's protest for accused murderer James C. Kopp is any indication, they'd have trouble filling out a military squad, let alone an army. The dozen or so abortion foes who gathered in front of the Erie County Holding Center, where Kopp is jailed, are united in their belief that violence to stop abortions is justified. Outnumbered by twice as many counterdemonstrators, they held signs and chanted support for Kopp, the admitted killer of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Kopp said he shot Slepian so he could perform no more abortions. "The message...

Local, state and federal law enforcement will be ready to protect not only Buffalo's abortion clinic, but also local hospitals and gay bars, when anti-abortion radicals come to town next week to rally in support of admitted killer James C. Kopp. Harold Litwin, chief of operations for the Buffalo Police Department, said Tuesday that protests - planned by individuals linked to the radical Army of God - may not be limited to the city's Womenservices Clinic. "It's a real threat," Litwin said. "We know that members of Army of God have criminal records and there are some with some serious...