Suspect in Clinic Killings Enters Not Guilty Pleas
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Anti-abortion extremist Paul Hill pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he violated federal clinic-protection law in the killing of an abortion doctor and a volunteer escort.
Hill’s court-appointed lawyer said after the arraignment that he planned to challenge the constitutionality of the federal law, which took effect in May.
The 40-year-old former Presbyterian minister, who has advocated killing abortion providers as “justifiable homicide,” is charged with three counts of violating the federal law, one each for the deaths of Dr. John Bayard Britton, 69, and James H. Barrett, 74, and the wounding of Barrett’s wife, June.
Hill also is charged with violating a federal firearms law by using a shotgun in the commission of a violent crime.
The Barretts were volunteer clinic escorts who were taking Britton to the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola when they were shot July 29.
In state court, Hill faces two counts of first-degree murder and one each of attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
