Federal jury convicts anti-abortion extremist

New U.S. federal convictions against anti-abortion crusader and convicted murderer James Kopp will eliminate any chance he had of parole.

Kopp, who is already serving a 25-year sentence for the 1998 sniper slaying of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian, was found guilty Thursday for violating the U.S. federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

The latest guilty verdict, which ruled that Kopp interfered with legal reproductive services protected under the act by shooting Slepian, ensures Kopp will serve his time in the federal system, which does not offer parole.

Kopp was found guilty for the second-degree murder of Slepian in 2003, after he hid in the woods and shot at Slepian from 100 metres away. The bullet hit Slepian while he was making soup in his kitchen in Amherst, N.Y., and the doctor died hours later.

Ontario Provincial Police officers attended Kopp's federal trial in Buffalo in case the 52-year-old convicted murderer mentioneddetails about a number of similar but nonfatal shootings in Canada, in which abortion providers were also targeted.

Kopp is the prime suspect in those shootings, which took place in the 1990s in Vancouver, Ancaster, Ont., and Winnipeg.