lifted a heavy burden and placed it on your shoulders. The question will become whether or not the law will be fairly applied to James Charles Kopp, even if the majority of the people don’t like the result dictated by law… Did he intend to kill Dr. Slepian? Absolutely not.”
Barket invoked the names of John Fisher, Thomas More, and Richard of Wales, “all three public figures, a bishop, a judge and a politician. They were confronted with the most divisive issue of their time, the supremacy clause of Henry VIII, who insisted on everyone signing. Richard took the oath and received Wales as his reward. More and Fisher refused and were beheaded… As we stand here now we must admire those two men who withstood even the pain of death and the demands of the majority in order to do what their conscience dictated. Richard received Wales as his reward for his whole life. Fisher and More received their reward all through eternity.”
D’Amico was not impressed. Barket was not arguing points of law, he reflected. Was he suggesting that Kopp should be acquitted in order for the judge to save his own soul? That the judge’s conscience should scream for acquitting Kopp?
“If you convict Jim Kopp there is no doubt that you will be hailed as a hero publicly for a time. I would respectfully suggest to you, judge, if you acquit him, as the law dictates, you will be a hero in the eyes of the truth for eternity.”
“Thank you, Mr. Barket,” said D’Amico. “Mr. Marusak?”
Chapter 24 ~ Grace and Ammunition
Joe Marusak was not accustomed to handling stipulated-fact trials, with no witnesses to cross-examine. This was his chance to perform. “There is a factual theme in this case and it is this,” he began. “This defendant, James Charles Kopp, twisted the meaning of the sign of the cross so he could justify to himself his own deadly use of the sign of the crosshairs.”
A peaceful man? Devout Catholic? Just a cover to stalk and kill. “If anything, the Catholic Church stands for peace. The two greatest commandments according to Jesus Christ: love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. He loved Dr. Slepian. Another phrase from Christ: ‘Judge ye not, lest ye be judged.’ Kopp took the role of police, prosecutor, grand jury, judge, trial jury and executioner all in one. Took it on himself.” As for intent, “the natural consequences of his act were, a very bloody, gory death, a bullet that bore a hole literally right through him, I mean sliced him in half practically where all of the major blood vessels, capillaries to the lungs, the aorta, the heart, I mean everything vital about us in our blood circulation system is built in our upper body. And that’s where the defendant aimed. And that’s where he fired. And that’s how Dr. Slepian died… You don’t need to be a forensic pathologist to understand that. You know where the heart is. Blood vessels. Lungs. This defendant surely did, a master’s biology graduate.”
The meek, mild-mannered facade was Kopp’s way of evading detection. He manipulated and deceived and lied to the relatively young, like Jennifer Rock, and the old, like James Gannon. “Do you think they knew they were helping someone who murdered?”
Marusak quoted from the confession Kopp had made to the Buffalo News reporters. “The defendant said, ‘I made every effort possible to make sure Dr. Slepian would not die. It’s the easiest thing in the world to kill somebody with a rifle. It’s very difficult to injure them if that’s your goal. Any idiot can see that it wasn’t meant to be fatal.’ Any idiot? Have you ever heard such brazen, unadulterated arrogance? Is it just because he’s got a 3.87 out of 4.0 and we are just not at the level of his intellectual prowess? Is that why the rest of us are idiots? Is there some sophistication going on in Jersey City that we just don’t know about, us backward hicks from Buffalo?”
Marusak was on a roll. Kopp was a zealot. Religious terrorist. Self-serving. Arrogant. “Say grace and pass the ammunition.” Kopp was frustrated that the law of the land permitted abortions. Dedicated his whole life to stopping it. Lived a celibate life. “And the frustration is chewing him up inside, he can’t get rid of abortion. In our democratic republic, he can’t get rid of it.”
Marusak shifted the scene back into the woods behind Bart Slepian’s house, pointing to a photo, Exhibit 12, of the darkened backyard the night of the shooting, and the shattered window with the blind half-closed. It’s almost eerie looking out of that darkness. The man is at home, his back and his side are turned to the outside, and he thinks he’s in the comfort and security of his own home, with his wife and children. And the high-powered bullet rips out of that darkness, puts the darkness into the lives of the Slepian family forever.”
The window shade may have been pulled halfway, said Marusak, but finding Kopp not guilty would be like pulling the shade down the rest of the way, and failing to “see the defendant’s implausible, self-serving admissions for what they are. I know you won’t do that, Judge. I know you will look at all the evidence with the calmness, with the fairness, but with the critical analysis, that every trier of fact needs to do. And I submit to you, if you do that, you will find him guilty as charged, intentional murder in the second degree. Thank you.”
“All right,” said D’Amico. “I anticipate a decision by tomorrow afternoon, if you don’t have a problem with that, say, between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Make plans accordingly. “Any questions, gentlemen?”
“No, Your Honor,” said Marusak.
“No, Judge, thank you,” said Barket.
“See you tomorrow.”
That night, D’Amico mulled over the facts. It was not going to take him much time to make his decision. But there had been a defense presented and he had to take it seriously—that Kopp, like others in the pro-life movement, was not the murdering kind. Kopp’s confession that he shot Slepian was big, of course, but not definitive in the case. There have been people who have confessed to crimes they didn’t commit. D’Amico didn’t weigh the confession in a vacuum. Indeed, he felt the prosecution didn’t need it to convict Kopp. It’s just one piece of evidence, and the pool of evidence was deep. Barket hadn’t mounted a defense like Paul Cambria would have, had not tried to make hay with the delay in police finding the rifle. But D’Amico wouldn’t have found that very persuasive anyway, he thought. What, the police planted the gun? What’s more plausible, he reflected, that they simply couldn’t find it during the winter initially, or that the police planted it? What makes sense? Are you kidding me? Does anyone really believe that the police decided seven months after the murder to bury a weapon that turns out to be the one that fired the shot?
The next afternoon, D’Amico took his seat just before 2:30 p.m. He looked at Kopp, who as usual wore a blue blazer and tan pants. The judge wasted little time. “I have concluded, Mr. Kopp, that you are guilty as charged.”
Kopp turned to Bruce Barket and smiled. Was it a nervous smile? Sheepish smile? Sarcastic smile? Journalists in court tried to decide. It was, like everything about him, hard to tell. Court was adjourned, Kopp led from the room by police. In the gallery, a group of friends gathered around Lynne Slepian. She said little. There were no tears, or cheers. Sentencing was set for May 9. At that time, Kopp would have his chance to make a detailed statement, explain himself.
After the verdict, journalists, searching for answers, called his stepmother, Lynn Kopp, in Texas, for a reaction. She, too, wondered why it had it taken Jim so long to confess to the crime. “He said he didn’t mean to kill but that he meant to protect unborn children,” Lynn said. “Isn’t that a contradiction? If you did it, if you had such intense feelings, why hide from them after you’ve done the deed?” Kopp already held his stepmother in low regard. Did he read her comments? He read everything. The liberal media, the pro-death media, had gone to his stepmother for comment on his case. He burned. And smiled. He expected nothing less.
Among his friends in the pro-life movement, both in the mainstream and on the fringe, there were many opinions about him once he admitted shooting Slepian. There were those who supported what he had done, who said it didn’t matter if he intended to kill the doctor or just wound him, who argued that the violence was entirely justified. Others did not openly approve of shooting abortion doctors, and could not believe that Jim would ever shoot anybody. They believed the FBI was framing him. But once he confessed, they had to concede that Jim had lied and, apparently, was capable of violence. Friends were saddened by what Kopp had done, and criticized his actions. Then there was Joan Andrews, one of his earliest inspirations in the movement, and others who remained torn over whether or not he was guilty. They had thought of him as such a low-key man, so gentle. Could he be
