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04.09.03, 01:07
Florida Executes Anti-Abortion Killer Hill
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By Broward Liston
STARKE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida put to death anti-abortion militant Paul
Hill on Wednesday for the shotgun murders of a doctor and his bodyguard at an
abortion clinic in an execution Hill had said would make him a martyr.
Reuters Photo
AFP
Slideshow: Abortion Doctor's Killer Expects 'Reward'
The 49-year-old defrocked Presbyterian minister was pronounced dead at 6:08
p.m. EDT at the Florida State Prison in Starke, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush
said. Hill was put to death by chemical injection, becoming the first person
executed in the United States for murdering a doctor who performed abortions.
Hill was sentenced to die for the killings of Dr. John Britton, 69, and his
bodyguard, James Barrett, 74, at the Ladies Center in Pensacola, Florida, on
July 29, 1994.
He said in a jailhouse interview on the eve of his execution that he had no
regrets and no remorse for the killings.
"I believe the state, by executing me, will be making me a martyr," said
Hill.
Abortion rights activists, fearing his execution would spur a wave of
reprisal violence by fringe elements of the anti-abortion movement, warned
abortion providers to step up security at clinics. Violent attacks at
abortion clinics, from bombings to invasions to snipers, have subsided in the
past five years.
Hill met with his wife, son, sisters and parents for about three hours before
being taken to the death chamber, a prison spokesman said.
"I think I have some natural apprehension, but no, I'm not afraid," Hill told
reporters on Tuesday. He requested the news conference under a Florida law
that grants death row inmates the right to meetings with family, spiritual
advisers and reporters before execution if they so choose.
In addition to the smattering of pro- and anti-death penalty activists who
show up for every execution, about 60 Hill supporters gathered in a cow
pasture across from the prison to protest his execution.
They carried signs reading: "Dead Doctors Can't Kill" and "Rev. Paul Hill
Going to Heaven, Dr. Britton Gone to Hell."
"There are several million people out there, maybe a hundred million, who
believe abortion is murder," said Hill supporter, the Rev. Michael Bray. "Any
of those acting on that assumption could do this (kill doctors) unless they
are absolute pacifists."
Mainstream anti-abortion groups say Hill, who advocated what he
calls "justifiable homicide" of abortion providers, represented a narrow
fringe even within the extremes of the movement.
Police were investigating death threats sent in anonymous letters to the
judge who sentenced Hill and to three state legal and corrections officials.
Investigators declined to comment on reports the letters contained bullets.
Hill said on Tuesday he did not support that action and that "those bullets
should be pointed in the direction of the abortion providers,"