THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411020437
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The executive director of Pat Robertson's law center said Tuesday that a staff lawyer was fired because he offered to resign and argue justifiable homicide on behalf of a man accused of killing an abortion doctor.
The offer ran counter to the American Center for Law and Justice's ``unequivocal position'' that intentional killings in support of the pro-life cause were neither legally nor morally defensible, Keith A. Fournier said Tuesday.
Contrary to Michael R. Hirsh's earlier claims, Fournier said Hirsh was not fired for writing a law-review article supporting the defense. The article was pulled from the Regent University Law Review before its distribution in August, but became public anyway.
Fournier said that around Oct. 21, Hirsh and his supervisor visited Paul J. Hill in a Pensacola, Fla. Hill was awaiting his trial on capital murder charges in the July 29 shotgun slayings of a doctor and an escort outside an abortion clinic.
Hirsh and the ACLJ had represented Hill on earlier, unrelated misdemeanor charges stemming from protests at the clinic.
Hirsh ``crossed the line'' when he offered to resign and represent Hill, Fournier said.
``That action was in direct opposition to his assurances to me and this organization that he would publicly support our position while in the employ of this organization.''
Fournier earlier had declined to be interviewed about Hirsh's firing, but said Tuesday that he wanted to respond to statements Hirsh made in The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
Hirsh has said that while he opposes killing of abortion doctors to prevent abortions, he believes that anyone so accused should be able to argue the killing was justified.
The ACLJ represents people supporting causes in which it believes, such as free-speech issues surrounding abortion protests. It unsuccessfully tried to withdraw from representing Hill on his misdemeanor charges after he was charged with murder; Hill is defending himself this week in court.
Fournier called the killing of abortion doctors part of a ``new zealot movement'' that ``threatens the very civil order of the nation.'' by CNB