THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190270
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: DEDHAM, MASS. LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
Rejecting claims that John C. Salvi III was driven by delusions of a vast anti-Catholic conspiracy, a jury Monday convicted him of murdering two women in a shooting rampage at two abortion clinics and sentenced him to two life terms in prison without parole.
Salvi, 24, was convicted of all charges against him: two counts of first-degree murder and five counts of armed assault with intent to murder, all arising from his Dec. 30, 1994, attack on the two clinics. He was quickly taken to state prison.
Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara ordered that Salvi serve the two life terms consecutively, and she also sentenced him to five additional terms that would mean 18 to 20 years in prison after the life terms for attempted murder in the wounding of five other people.
In Massachusetts, first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Such convictions are automatically appealed to the state's Supreme Judicial Court. The state has no death penalty.
Just before Salvi was sentenced, Ruth Ann Nichols, the mother of one of the women he killed, told him from the witness stand, ``Without hesitation, I hope you have sheer misery the rest of your life.''
Ruth Nichols, looking at Salvi, said that the first words her daughter, Lee Ann, had spoken as a little girl had been ``me chase the birdies'' but that her last words, as Salvi shot her 10 times at point-blank range, had been ``no, no, no.''
``You shot her in the back,'' she said in making a victim's impact statement. ``That is cowardly. You are a little man with a big gun.''
As the verdicts were read, Salvi, who had repeatedly disrupted proceedings earlier in the case with demands to air his conspiracy notions, stood quietly, staring vacantly or bowing his head, his dark tie crooked.
Upon hearing the verdict, Salvi's father came to his wife's aid as she doubled over in her seat. ``Just leave me alone,'' she said as her husband rubbed her back and her only child was led away.
Just before sentencing, Salvi got his long-sought chance to address the court. He showed no remorse and continued to request the chance to conduct interviews with the news media to discuss his views about the purported anti-Catholic conspiracy.
``As you know, I haven't pled guilty though I am against abortion,'' Salvi said. ``My position is pro-welfare state, pro-Catholic labor union and, basically, pro-life.''
In Norfolk, where Salvi was captured a day after the Massachusetts murders after he fired into the city's Hillcrest Clinic, the verdict drew mixed reaction.
Suzette Caton, director of community relations for the clinic, said:
``We're relieved that the jury found him guilty and we feel that justice has been served. We also hope that the families and loved ones of the victims feel some comfort and resolution to their pain as a result of the conviction.
``We certainly hope that the conviction will send a message and be a deterrent to the violence. But it's also important that we recognize that we've been living under this violence for a number of years and as it's escalated, we've continued to provide safe, legal abortions.''
Donald Spitz, a local anti-abortionst who is head of the Cheaspeake-based Pro-Life Virginia, said Monday that he did not think Salvi received a fair trial.
``I think it was a total kangaroo court,'' said Spitz, who was among 30 people who signed a petition declaring that violence against clinic personnel is justified as a ``defensive action'' to protect the unborn. ``The man could not receive a fair trial in Massachusetts, which has been filled with anti-abortion hysteria since this (the murders) happened.
``The judge again and again showed her pro-abortion bias,'' Spitz said. ``She would not allow a change of venue. She would not let him testify and she would not allow TV cameras into the courtroom.''
Salvi walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic on Dec. 30, 1994, pulled out a .22-caliber rifle and opened fire. Receptionist Shannon Lowney, 25, was killed and three other people in the waiting room were wounded.
Then, he drove his pickup about two miles to the Preterm Health Services clinic and opened fire again, killing receptionist Lee Ann Nichols, 38, and wounding two others.
``This is what you get! You should pray the rosary!'' Salvi screamed as he pumped 10 bullets into Nichols.
Salvi was arrested the next day in Norfolk.
Authorities searching Salvi's unkempt Hampton, N.H., apartment found anti-abortion literature and laminated photos of aborted fetuses.
The defense contended that the aspiring hairdresser envisioned himself a warrior fighting a worldwide, anti-Catholic conspiracy led by the Mafia, Freemasons and the Ku Klux Klan.
Salvi's lead defense attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., said any appeal would be based in part on the judge's refusal to allow Salvi to testify. In the closing moments of the trial, Carney had asserted Salvi's right to testify, but the lawyer tried to limit the areas in which the prosecution could cross-examine him, so the judge turned him down.
Prosecutors argued that Salvi was in control of his senses and deliberately planned his crime. They noted Salvi practiced at a firing range the day before the killings, stocked up on 1,000 super-deadly hollow-point bullets and cut his longish, curly hair hours after the attack.
Salvi was the third man to be convicted of murdering abortion clinic workers. Paul Hill awaits execution for killing a doctor and a bodyguard in 1994 outside a clinic in Pensacola, Fla. Earlier that year, Michael Griffin was sentenced to life in prison for killing a doctor outside another Pensacola clinic.
The Salvi attacks were the worst violence against an abortion clinic in U.S. history. A federal grand jury in Alexandria, probing the violence concluded in January that there was no nationwide conspiracy to commit violence against abortion clinics or personnel. MEMO: The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Associated Press and
Virginian-Pilot writers Laura LaFay and Diane Tennant contributed to
this report.
SALVI WILL BE PROSECUTED IN NORFOLK / A10
HIGH COURT TO HEAR ABORTION CASE / A10
ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Joan and William Lowney are the parents of Shannon Lowney, 25, the
first of two clinic workers killed by John C. Salvi III in his
rampage on Dec. 31, 1994.
KEYWORDS: VERDICT MURDER TRIAL ABORTION CLINIC SHOOTINGS by CNB