Anti-abortionist jailed for killing

A militant anti-abortionist who became an international fugitive after shooting dead an American doctor showed no remorse as he received the maximum possible prison sentence for the crime yesterday.

James Kopp, jailed for 25 years to life, said he would have served "10 life sentences or 10 death penalties" to prevent further abortions from taking place.

Kopp, 48, shot 52-year-old Dr Barnett Slepian at his home in New York state in 1998, then fled to Mexico and Ireland, authorities believe, before ending up in France. He was captured in a post office there in 2001 where he was trying to retrieve money.

"Why should the safety of Dr Slepian be put over the safety of unborn children?" Kopp, known to supporters as Atomic Dog, said in a 90-minute effort at self-justification. "I wish I could do 10 life sentences or 10 death penalties to save them ... Dr Slepian had every opportunity to stop killing, and the children had no opportunity to run away from him."

Kopp was convicted of second-degree murder in March after the failure of a defence based on the admission that he had fired the shot but had only planned to wound the father of four. The prosecution argued that his choice of gun was one of many factors suggesting intent to kill.

"You made an attempt to avoid responsibility for the act," said Judge Michael D'Amico in Buffalo, New York. "What may appear righteous to you is immoral to someone else."

A federal trial against Kopp is still pending, and he is a suspect in four non-fatal shootings in the mid-1990s.