Threats, bullets sent to protest pending execution

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wed, Aug. 20, 2003

Threats, bullets sent to protest pending execution
Hill's supporters see him as a martyr for a cause
BY LESLEY CLARK
[e-mail]


TALLAHASSEE - Three death-threat letters containing bullets were sent to Florida's attorney general and two prison officials in protest of the pending execution of anti-abortion activist Paul Hill.

The missives arrived Monday as death-penalty opponents urged Gov. Jeb Bush to cancel the lethal injection execution scheduled for Sept. 3. They warn that Hill's death has the potential of turning him into a martyr to extreme anti-abortion groups.

State law enforcement officials said Tuesday they're investigating the letters and bullets, delivered in Tallahassee to Attorney General Charlie Crist and Corrections Secretary James Crosby. Joseph Thompson, the warden at Florida State Prison in Starke, also received a threat. Hill has been on Death Row there since 1994 for the shooting death of a Pensacola abortion doctor and his escort.

Investigators refused to release details about the letters, but said they were threatening in nature. (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/6572114.htm