Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 1, 1994 TAG: 9408010080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PENSACOLA, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Prosecutors weighed the clinic's rights against Paul Hill's right of free speech and decided an arrest wasn't warranted, FBI spokesman George Wisnovsky said Sunday.
``The decision was made based on where he was and what he was doing,'' Wisnovsky said from the FBI's Jacksonville office. ``The results of our investigation were forwarded to the U.S. attorney.''
The director of the Pensacola clinic had asked that Hill be arrested under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The law makes it a federal crime to obstruct, intentionally injure or intimidate anyone trying to obtain an abortion.
Ladies Center Director Linda Taggart complained that Hill had been screaming through the clinic's windows. Hill was a regular protester who advocated the killing of abortion doctors as justifiable homicide.
``They said they didn't think it was the time to arrest him,'' Taggart told the Pensacola News Journal. ``Nobody can seem to do anything until it's too late.''
Prosecutors decided Hill hadn't broken the law, said U.S. Attorney Michael Patterson. Nonetheless, an arrest would not have prevented the slayings, because Hill would have been free on pre-trial release, he said.
``Someone with a clear intent to commit violence regardless of the outcome to themselves is almost impossible to stop,'' Patterson said.
Hill, 40, is charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the deaths of Dr. John Bayard Britton, 69, of Fernandina Beach, and retired Air Force Lt. Col. James Herman Barrett, 74, of Pensacola. The men were killed Friday by multiple shotgun blasts as they drove into the clinic's parking lot.
Barrett's wife, June, 68, a retired public health nurse, was wounded in the arm as she sat in the rear of the car.
Eleanor Smeal, founder of the Feminist Majority and former president of the National Organization for Women, called Sunday for federal protection for clinics.
``The extremists have embarked on a murder strategy. They have no legal right to threaten to kill us,'' Smeal said. ``We want federal marshals to come in to protect the clinics. There is no reason doctors, nurses, escorts and patients have got to risk their lives.''
There was no nationwide order to post marshals at abortion clinics, according to U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Dave Branham.
``If we are out there, it's in response to a request for our presence based on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act,'' he said Sunday.
However, the U.S. marshal for Kansas, Rand Rock, said there would be an official announcement in Washington today.
On Sunday, about 350 people attended the interfaith service for Britton and Barrett at Christ Episcopal Church. Most then marched, singing ``We Shall Overcome,'' through a pouring rain to a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King about a block away.
Earlier in the day, June Barrett and other family members were among 150 people at a memorial service for her husband at their church, the Pensacola Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
``We all know he died doing something he strongly believed in,'' Barrett's son, Bruce, told the congregation. ``He died with his boots on. He was a soldier in the war for human rights.''
June Barrett, escorted by her husband's grandson, Jason Witty, an Air Force airman in dress blues, accepted embraces and condolences from well-wishers. The Barretts both were widowed and have children from first marriages.
Dandy Barrett Witty urged others to continue her father's work.
``My dad knew it was dangerous,'' she said. ``Dad was a feisty, 5-foot-7, 145-pound Mighty Mouse. I think he thought he was invincible.''
The Barretts were volunteers who helped escort patients into the clinic to shield them from protesters. They picked up the doctor at Pensacola Regional Airport.
Hill remained in jail Sunday without bond. He moved to Pensacola two years ago after leaving the Presbyterian ministry after a falling out with a congregation in Lake Worth.
Dr. David Gunn was shot to death at another Pensacola abortion clinic March 10, 1993. His killer, abortion protester Michael F. Griffin, 32, of Pensacola, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
by CNB