BUFFALO - Anti-abortion activist James Kopp's attorney has been fighting for months to have Kopp's published admission that he fatally shot an abortion provider kept out of his federal trial.
On Friday, Kopp effectively asked a judge to ignore him.
“I cannot denounce the contents of the article which contains truths of my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Kopp wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara, which was read in court.
Kopp raised the possibility of withdrawing the motion to suppress his statements in The Buffalo News and elsewhere. The letter prompted Arcara to ask defense attorney John Humann if that was what Kopp wanted.
“I don't know,” Humann replied. “Mr. Kopp is his own person.”
At the judge's urging, Humann and Kopp had an impromptu conference at the defense table, and Kopp reluctantly agreed to let Humann pursue the motion.
The lawyer said later that Kopp wrote the letter because he feels strongly about his past statements.
“He doesn't want to be viewed as backing off anything,” Humann said.
Kopp, 51, is serving a prison term of 25 years to life after being convicted in state court of second-degree murder in the 1998 death of Dr. Barnett Slepian. He faces trial in federal court on a related charge of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
In his public statements, Kopp admitted to shooting Slepian with a rifle from a grove of trees behind the doctor's suburban Amherst home, but said he intended only to wound Slepian to stop him from performing abortions.
He said he was saddened to learn Slepian, a father of four, had died but did not regret shooting him.
Humann, in court filings, argued that Kopp's statements “rendered his federal trial indefensible” and that they should be thrown out because at the time Kopp made them he was represented by an attorney with a conflict of interest.
Humann said Kopp's former attorney, Bruce Barket, convinced Kopp to make the statements as part of a deal with prosecutors to win leniency for another of Barket's clients - a woman who was charged with helping Kopp evade capture after the shooting.
“You cannot represent one client at the expense of another,” Humann said.
Arcara set a May 9 hearing to explore the claims. Several of Kopp's previous attorneys and prosecutors are expected to testify. Slepian's death set off an international manhunt for Kopp, who became one of the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives and spent more than two years on the run before being captured outside a post office in Dinan, France, in March 2001.
In his statements to the newspaper, Kopp, known in extremist anti-abortion circles as “Atomic Dog,” estimated he had taken part in at least 120 demonstrations and been arrested at least 100 times protesting abortion around the world.
“I cannot denounce the contents of the article which contains truths of my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Kopp wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara, which was read in court.
Kopp raised the possibility of withdrawing the motion to suppress his statements in The Buffalo News and elsewhere. The letter prompted Arcara to ask defense attorney John Humann if that was what Kopp wanted.
“I don't know,” Humann replied. “Mr. Kopp is his own person.”
At the judge's urging, Humann and Kopp had an impromptu conference at the defense table, and Kopp reluctantly agreed to let Humann pursue the motion.
The lawyer said later that Kopp wrote the letter because he feels strongly about his past statements.
“He doesn't want to be viewed as backing off anything,” Humann said.
Kopp, 51, is serving a prison term of 25 years to life after being convicted in state court of second-degree murder in the 1998 death of Dr. Barnett Slepian. He faces trial in federal court on a related charge of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
In his public statements, Kopp admitted to shooting Slepian with a rifle from a grove of trees behind the doctor's suburban Amherst home, but said he intended only to wound Slepian to stop him from performing abortions.
He said he was saddened to learn Slepian, a father of four, had died but did not regret shooting him.
Humann, in court filings, argued that Kopp's statements “rendered his federal trial indefensible” and that they should be thrown out because at the time Kopp made them he was represented by an attorney with a conflict of interest.
Humann said Kopp's former attorney, Bruce Barket, convinced Kopp to make the statements as part of a deal with prosecutors to win leniency for another of Barket's clients - a woman who was charged with helping Kopp evade capture after the shooting.
“You cannot represent one client at the expense of another,” Humann said.
Arcara set a May 9 hearing to explore the claims. Several of Kopp's previous attorneys and prosecutors are expected to testify. Slepian's death set off an international manhunt for Kopp, who became one of the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives and spent more than two years on the run before being captured outside a post office in Dinan, France, in March 2001.
In his statements to the newspaper, Kopp, known in extremist anti-abortion circles as “Atomic Dog,” estimated he had taken part in at least 120 demonstrations and been arrested at least 100 times protesting abortion around the world.