The Buffalo News
Kopp can take plea to avoid solitary
Killer of Dr. Slepian discloses federal offer
By MICHAEL BEEBE
News Staff Reporter
12/7/2006
Federal prosecutors have told James C. Kopp he will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement, locked up 23 hours a day in the nation's most-secure prison, if he insists on a trial and is convicted on federal charges stemming from the October 1998 killing of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian.
But if he pleads guilty instead, the prosecutors told Kopp in a recent meeting, they would see that he is sentenced to a medium-security federal prison.
Kopp, who is representing himself, disclosed the government's offer in a four-page affidavit he wrote from his cell in the Niagara County Jail and made available to The Buffalo News.
His court-appointed legal adviser, assistant federal public defender John F. Humann, confirmed Kopp's version of the offer.
"They can make a recommendation [about prisons] to the judge and the Bureau of Prisons," Humann said. "In my experience, 99 percent of the time they're followed."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter, who both Kopp and Humann said made the offer in a Nov. 8 meeting, said she would not comment on attorney discussions.
She said if Kopp is convicted, the U.S. attorney has the authority to make a sentence recommendation at the conclusion of the case.
Kopp already is destined to spend at least the next 25 years of his life in prison, after he was convicted in Erie County Court of Slepian's murder.
Now 52, Kopp would be in his 70s before he was even eligible for state parole and even then would be unlikely to be granted his freedom.
Kopp faces an additional life sentence in federal prison if convicted of charges that, by his killing Slepian, he violated a federal law guaranteeing access to abortion clinics. He is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 3 before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
Kopp said that he and Humann, accompanied by three U.S. marshals, were summoned to the November meeting by Mehltretter and a fellow prosecutor, Martin J. Littlefield.
Kopp said in the affidavit that Littlefield laid out the evidence against Kopp and the witnesses the prosecution intends to call.
Included in the evidence are Kopp's statements, given to The News in an interview and later introduced at his County Court trial. Kopp said he shot Slepian with a high-powered sniper's rifle while hiding in the woods behind Slepian's home.
Kopp told The News he only meant to wound Slepian so he could no longer perform abortions.
Humann asked the two prosecutors what Kopp could expect if he disposed of the case with a plea. Mehltretter said he would go immediately to a medium-security prison, both Kopp and Humann said.
And if the case went to trial? Humann asked her.
"Florence, Colo., . . . It's permanent," Mehltretter replied, according to Kopp's affidavit.
Florence ADMAX, as it is known, is the federal prison system's most secure prison, built in 1994 to house the nation's most dangerous prisoners.
It is home to a rogues' gallery of prison murderers, terrorists and serial bombers.
Unabomber Theodore J. Kaczynski is a Florence prisoner, as is Eric R. Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber who also bombed some abortion clinics.
Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," is there as is 911 plotter Zacharias Moussaoui and Oma Abdel-Rachman, the blind sheik involved in the earlier World Trade Center bombing.
Timothy J. McVeigh was housed in Florence before his execution for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, and his co-conspirator, Terry L. Nichols, is still there.
I am by no means excusing his actions as a murderer, but this is ridiculous.
He killed one person. Unless I'm mistaken, he had no intention of killing anyone else. Unlike McVeigh, Moussaoui and Slepian.
Particularly ridiculous, I think, is the life sentence (unless I'm reading this wrong?) for violating a law guaranteeing access to abortion clinics.
Wha? People aren't guaranteed access to homeless shelters, food banks or necessary medical treatment, but a federal law guarantees access to have an abortion? With priorities like this, it's no wonder the U.S. is so ******** up.
