PUBLISHED SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 2003

Nine years after crime, Hill prepares for death

Abortion foe shocked city, nation in 1994 with clinic murders

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Hill lives in world of black and white
'I want it to be over'

Ginny Graybiel
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

For almost a year and a half, Paul Hill had been a fixture at The Ladies Center.

Dr. John Britton, who performed abortions at the clinic every Friday, the volunteers who escorted the doctor, the staff inside the clinic, the police officers who stood guard and the nonviolent protesters all knew he was different.

They knew the odd little smile that always played on his lips.

They knew his philosophy: The killing of doctors who performed abortions was "justifiable homicide."

They knew the sign that he carried:

"Execute Murderers, Abortionists, Accessories."

They knew his chant, heard inside and outside the walls of the clinic: "Mommy, Mommy, don`t kill me."

What they didn`t know was that this day - July 29, 1994 - would be different from dozens of other days on which Britton arrived at the North Ninth Avenue clinic around 7:30 a.m. and performed abortions.

It turned into the day that Hill, the married father of three young children, would abandon his rhetoric and put his deadly words into action.

He would kill Britton, 69, who had flown in from Fernandina Beach that morning. He would kill James Barrett, 74, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who picked the doctor up at the airport in his pickup and drove him to the clinic. He would wound Barrett`s wife, June, now 77, who was in the back seat of the pickup.

Today, Hill, 49, is only 10 days from his Sept. 3 scheduled execution by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Starke.

Already, the rhetoric is reaching a heightened pitch.

Some say his death is long overdue. Others fear his death could trigger more abortion violence. A few think of him as a hero.

In any event, Pensacola residents are again looking back at a day that placed the city in an unwelcome national spotlight.

When Circuit Judge Frank Bell refused to allow Hill to argue at trial that he killed to stop the greater harm of abortion, he elected to forego a defense. He dismissed his lawyers. He didn`t question witnesses. He just sat and watched the proceedings with that curious smile.

Exactly what went on in Hill`s mind was a mystery.

Throughout the past nine years, Hill has spent almost every day penning his thoughts from prison, and they are now posted online at several Web sites.

This is his chilling account - he has left out many crucial details - of the day of the murders:On March 12, 1993, two days after Pensacola resident Michael Griffin killed Dr. David Gunn at another Pensacola abortion clinic, Hill called the "Phil Donahue Show" to say he supported the shooting. Three days later, he appeared on the show with Gunn`s son, comparing killing Gunn to killing a Nazi concentration camp doctor.

From that point on, Hill touted his "justifiable homicide" philosophy to anyone who would listen.

But talking about murder was a far cry from committing murder.

Hill claimed that it wasn`t until eight days before the slayings of Britton and Barrett that he first thought about the possibility of actually taking a gun into his own hands.

He didn`t tell anyone.

"I continued to secretly consider shooting an abortionist, half hoping it would not appear as plausible after I had given it more thought," he wrote.

The Friday a week before the shootings, Hill went to the clinic for his regular morning of picketing and protesting. He noted that Britton actually arrived a few minutes before the police security officer reported for duty at 7:30 a.m.

"This information was like a bright green light, signaling me on," he wrote.

The next day, Hill went to Pensacola Beach with his wife, Karen, and three children, ages 9, 6 and 3. He didn`t want them

involved in the murders.

"Neither Karen nor the children seemed alerted to anything," he wrote. "Like a man savoring his last meal, I enjoyed watching them through eyes unknown to them."

The following Monday, with Karen and the children leaving on a long-planned trip, Hill began to put his plans in motion.

He bought a shotgun. He took target practice.

The shooting

The Friday of the murders, Hill rose at 4 a.m. He`d stayed up late the night before, he wrote, but he wanted "to spend time in prayer and Bible reading and to prepare myself for the day."

He was fully determined. But his customary zeal was missing.

"This was not an easy task," he wrote.

He drove past the clinic to see if everything looked normal. He turned around and drove back.

"The truck did not want to turn around; it had to be forced," he wrote. "I could hear the undercarriage groan as I did a tight turn in an open parking lot."

As he waited for Britton, Hill claimed, he prayed for two things: He prayed to maintain his resolve, and he prayed that the police security officer would not arrive first.

"I could still find the heart to shoot the abortionist, but, while I knew it would be justified to kill a policeman in order to stop the murderer he was protecting, I did not want to have to do it," he wrote.

Britton and Barrett arrived shortly before 7:30 a.m. The police officer on duty had not yet arrived.

Hill raised his shotgun and fired. Britton and Barrett lay dead in the front set of the pickup. Barrett`s wounded wife dropped to the floor of the rear seat.

The two men dead, Hill walked calmly away, holding his hands out at his sides.

The police were on the scene in minutes, ordering him to the ground with drawn guns.

"I was relieved when they cuffed me," Hill wrote. "I did not want to be shot and was glad to be safely in police custody."

A message

As officers led Hill to a cruiser, he offered the assembled crowd what he claimed were spontaneous words: "One thing`s for sure, no innocent people will be killed in that clinic today."

During several hours at the police station, Hill refused to discuss what he`d done. He wrote that he did not want to assist officers who had sworn to uphold the law, which included the right to abortion.

Escorted from the police station, headed to the jail, Hill delivered what he called "a carefully planned declaration" to the large group of news reporters and photographers who had assembled.

"Now is the time to defend the unborn in the same way you`d defend slaves about to be murdered," he yelled.

Alone in a cell later that day, he sang joyfully to himself: "Our God is an awesome God!"

Today, on death row, Hill claims bliss.

"The inner joy and peace that have flooded my soul since I have cast off the state`s tyranny makes my 6x9 cell a triumphant and newly liberated kingdom," he wrote. "I shudder at the thought of ever returning to the bondage currently enforced by the state."

Fateful delay

Three Pensacola police officers who frequently worked at the clinic on Fridays, either on off- duty jobs or as part of their regular duties, all knew Paul Hill.

They have striking recollections of the fateful day.

Sgt. Jerry Smith is convinced he would be dead but for a delay in obtaining a cruiser at the police station that morning.

On the Fridays he worked at the clinic, Smith normally arrived at about 7:15 a.m. He`d sit in his cruiser, read the newspaper and eat breakfast as he waited for the doctor and his escorts to arrive.

But on July 29, 1994, he had to wait through a shift change to get a cruiser so was late leaving for the clinic. That same day, the doctor was a few minutes early.

Smith was at Cervantes Street and North Ninth Avenue when his radio blared that shots were fired. He sped to the clinic.

By the time, he arrived, officers who were closer already had taken Hill into custody.

Later, Smith would hear that Hill had declared himself willing to shoot an officer, if necessary.

"If I`d done the same routine that day, I feel like he would have taken me out first," Smith said. "To try to take them out first wouldn`t do him any good because I`d probably have taken him out first."

After that day, Smith didn`t return to the clinic.

"I went one time this year, and it was kind of spooky," he said.

The protests on that day he went back to the clinic were peaceful. But he was still skittish.

"You can`t let your guard down any more," he said.

Calm aftermath

Officer Mark Holmes was one of two officers who responded to a call from the clinic about 7 a.m. the day of the murders.

Hill was putting out little white crosses on the city right-of-way. When told to stop, he did.

What Holmes and the other officer didn`t know was that Hill already had hidden a shotgun in the bushes across the parking lot from where he talked with them.

The crosses removed, Holmes and the other officer left.

Just a short time later, while driving on Brent Lane, Holmes heard the radio call of shots fired at The Ladies Center.

"I knew what had happened, and I knew who had done it," he said.

That was because he`d watched Hill for so many weeks.

"You`d never think that someone would go to that extreme," he said. "But, of all the protesters of that time, Paul was the most vocal."

Holmes arrived seconds after Officer Bruce Martin. Hill was calmly walking south from the clinic.

At the officers` orders, Hill hit the ground for handcuffing. When the officers searched him, they found more bullets on a band around his ankle.

Ron Blake, co-owner of the nearby Runway Imports, had been working in his auto-repair back shop when he heard what sounded like a transformer exploding. His curiosity piqued, he came to the street to look for smoke.

Instead, he saw a tall blond man strolling down the street. He watched the officers arrest him, then search him against a Dumpster in the vacant lot next door.

Blake had never even heard of Hill. He`d long since given up paying attention to the protests at the clinic down the street.

"I didn`t know what was going on," he said. "I didn`t know the man walking along the street had anything to do with the blast. He didn`t look like he was panicking or anything."

One-subject conversation

Officer Mike Reese began working off-duty at The Ladies Center in late 1990.

"There was a lot going on: protests, demonstrations, procedures," he said. "Each and every week, it was expect the unexpected."

After Hill began picketing the clinic in 1993, Reese talked to him almost every week. Hill`s conversation was always about abortion, nothing else. He wanted Reese to say he was against it, but the officer wouldn`t commit himself.

"We never had a conflict," Reese said. "I`d tell him, `Whatever you believe in, that`s fine. I`m fine with it. I know what I believe in, and I don`t need to share what I believe in with you. It`s irrelevant."`

But Hill liked Reese. He told him that he felt the officer respected him.

"I told him," Reese recalled, "`I`m here for security. I`m not on anyone`s side. I`m here to make sure no one violates the law, and everyone is safe and secure."`

Back at the station after his arrest, Hill asked to see Reese.

The officer walked into the room where Hill was being held.

"I`ll never forget, I said, `Man, I`m very sorry about the tragic event that happened this morning."`

Hill looked at him. He had nothing to say.

Key events in area`s abortion battle

1984

June 25: Bomb rips through The Ladies Center, forcing the center to move.

Dec. 25: Bombs go off at The Ladies Center and the offices of two doctors who offered abortions, Bo Bagenholm and William Permenter.

1985

April 24: Matthew Goldsby and James Simmons are convicted of the Christmas Day bombings. They later are sentenced to 10 years, but they serve only about half of their terms.

Aug. 29: Abortion protester John Burt is sentenced to six months` probation for trespassing after entering Bagenholm`s office and distributing anti-abortion literature.

1986

March 26: Four abortion opponents, including Burt and his daughter, Sarah, rush into The Ladies Center, extensively damaging medical equipment.

Nov. 28-29: Seven abortion opponents are arrested after refusing to move from the front of a truck at The Ladies Center. Several hundred protesters attend. The next day, eight are arrested at a march outside the home of Circuit Judge William Anderson, who sentenced an abortion protester to five years in prison for the March burglary of The Ladies Center.

1988

May 6: John Brockhoeft, a Kentucky abortion opponent, drives to Pensacola with a carload of bomb parts and the intention of blowing up The Ladies Center. He is convicted in August. Burt later is placed under two years of house arrest for driving Brockhoeft by the center. Brockhoeft served two separate prison terms totaling more than six years after also being convicted of the 1985 firebombing of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Cincinnati. He was released from federal prison in February 1995.

1991

June: Burt purchases a strip of land beside The Ladies Center. As a result, abortion protesters, once restricted to the right-of-way in front of the clinic, can get within earshot of patients.

1993

March 10: Dr. David Gunn is shot in the back and killed outside Pensacola Women`s Medical Services in Cordova Square while an abortion protest, orchestrated by Burt, is under way. Protester Michael Griffin is arrested.

May 8: A march and rally take place in Gunn`s honor and in support of the legal right to choose abortion.

Nov. 19: Operation Rescue stages an abortion protest at an entrance to The Ladies Center on Ninth Avenue. Protesters are met by more than 30 clinic defenders standing with arms linked.

1994

Feb. 21: Michael Griffin`s first-degree murder trial begins.

March 5: Jurors return a guilty verdict. Judge John Parnham sentences Griffin to life in prison.

June 17: Paul Hill arrested outside The Ladies Center after shouting "Mommy, don`t kill me" at women inside. He is charged with disorderly conduct and violation of the noise ordinance.

July 29: Dr. John Britton and his volunteer escort, James Barrett, die after seven shotgun blasts are fired outside The Ladies Center. Barrett`s wife, June, is wounded. Hill is arrested that same day on two first-degree murder and other charges.

Aug. 12: Federal grand jury indicts Hill on three counts of violating federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances law and one count of using a firearm in a violent crime in The Ladies Center shootings.

Sept. 20: Hill is found guilty of violating the noise ordinance and is sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Oct. 5: U.S. District Court jury convicts Hill on freedom-of-access charges.

Nov. 2: Hill is convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Dec. 2: U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson sentences Hill to two life sentences for federal violations.

Dec. 6: Hill is sentenced to death for killing Britton and Barrett.

1995

Jan. 12: Pensacola City Council approves an 8-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics.

1996

July 3: Gunn`s family settles a lawsuit blaming Burt for his slaying. As part of the settlement, they gain control of his property next to The Ladies Center.

Nov. 27: Florida Supreme Court upholds Hill`s death sentences.

1997

Oct. 6: U.S. Supreme Court refuses to consider a second appeal filed by a Connecticut attorney over Hill`s objections.

1999

Oct. 28: Circuit Judge Frank Bell grants a motion by Hill to dismiss his attorneys. There has been no litigation since.

2003

July 9: Gov. Jeb Bush signs Hill`s death warrant. The warrant runs from Sept. 2 through Sept. 9. Hill`s execution is scheduled for Sept. 3.

Aug. 15: Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty urge Gov. Bush to commute Hill`s death sentence to life in prison to avoid possible retaliation by fringe abortion-opposition groups.

Aug. 18 and 19: Judge Bell, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist and two state prison officials are sent threatening letters containing live rifle bullets.