Three state officials are mailed threats connected to the Sept. 3 execution of an antiabortion activist and killer.
By ALISA ULFERTS
Published August 20, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - State law enforcement officers are investigating threatening letters sent to Attorney General Charlie Crist and two other state officials in connection with the pending execution of an antiabortion activist.
Each letter included a bullet, authorities said. They declined to discuss the nature of the threats, which also were sent to James Crosby, secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, and Florida State Prison Warden Joe Thompson.
Crosby said the letter appeared to be from someone opposed to executing Paul Hill, who fatally shot a doctor and a volunteer escort at a Pensacola abortion clinic in 1994. Hill is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 3.
Death penalty opponents worry that his execution could trigger attacks on abortion clinics, a death penalty opponent said Tuesday.
"In the case of this execution there are dangerous potential outcomes,"+Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told the Associated Press. "When you kill a terrorist, a person who kills not for personal gain but to further a cause, then . . . that person becomes a hero to his or her followers."
Bonowitz asked Gov. Jeb Bush in a letter last week to call off Hill's execution and commute his sentences to life in prison.
When he signed Hill's death warrant in July, Gov. Jeb Bush dismissed the suggestion that Hill's supporters might see him as a martyr.
"He's a murderer and he was sentenced to death and I have the duty to carry out that sentence," said Bush, who opposes abortion.
The governor has not changed his mind, Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj said Tuesday.
It's unusual for an execution to prompt threats, Crosby said. "I've had that happen before when I was a warden, but it's extremely rare," Crosby said.
Crist said he received the letter Monday. "It was direct," Crist said, declining to give details. "It was a threat that we are taking seriously."
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement considers the threats "sufficient enough for us to open a criminal investigation," said spokesman Al Dennis.
Hill, 49, used a shotgun to kill Dr. John B. Britton, 79, of Fernandina Beach and retired Air Force Lt. Col. James H. Barrett, 74, of Pensacola on July 29, 1994, outside the Ladies Center abortion clinic.
Hill would be the first antiabortion murderer to be executed, according to Bonowitz's group.
"By helping Paul Hill to martyr himself, you will give Hill and his followers a platform to encourage others to copy the crime," Bonowitz wrote. "The martyrdom of Paul Hill will be a prime example of how the death penalty can actually encourage more murder and violence."
Acting as his own trial lawyer, Hill called no witnesses, conducted no cross-examination and made only brief opening and closing statements that focused on his opposition to abortion.
After Hill was condemned in December 1994, he said he welcomed execution because he believed it would prevent abortions by inciting more violence against abortion providers.
He said he had been inspired to kill Britton and Barrett by the actions of Michael Griffin, an antiabortion activist who fatally shot another doctor in Pensacola in 1993.
After Hill's warrant was signed last month, his designated spiritual adviser spoke with him for several hours.
Hill has "perfect peace" and was justified in killing Britton and Barrett, Don Spitz said in a recording on a Web site that defends Hill.
"Paul Hill is a very dangerous man," Spitz said. "He's going to be more dangerous when they take his life for protecting unborn babies."
But Lynda Bell, a spokeswoman for Florida Right to Life, said it is ridiculous to believe Hill's execution will lead to copycat killings by abortion opponents.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
