Trauma Cited in Mysterious Ark. Bird Kill

USA Today - A mysterious event that caused thousands of red-wing blackbirds to rain down from the sky New Year's Eve in the Arkansas town of Beebe may have occurred when loud noises or fireworks frightened a flock that roosts in a neighborhood, causing them to fly into buildings and other obstacles, a state ornithologist said.

But others still think weather could have played a role.

Preliminary necropsies on the dead birds by the state Livestock and Poultry Commission "showed trauma," said Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist. "The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages." Beyond that, all the birds were healthy.

The state is also performing chemical and disease testing, but the results will take a week.

Neighbors reported five to 12 booming noises in the eastern part of Beebe, a community of 5,000 northeast of Little Rock. "They reported it sounding like a cannon or transformer exploding," but officials are still investigating to find out what the noises were, Rowe said.

The flock then rose from its roost and tried to fly away, but possibly because of fireworks in the sky "they naturally wouldn't want to go up high," she said. "They were below the roof line, so they were hitting houses, mail boxes, chimneys and walls."

Blackbirds have very poor night vision.

The first calls about the incident came in at about 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, according to Keith Stephens, with the Game and Fish Commission.

"They told us there were birds falling out of the sky. After we verified that this wasn't some kind of prank, one of our wildlife officers went over there and sure enough, there were birds falling," he said.

The Department of Emergency Management tested the air and found nothing amiss, so the state isn't putting out any health warnings, he said.

Many theories being floated about causes of the die off can be discounted, said Dan Cristol, a professor of biology at the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. The birds couldn't have eaten a fast-acting pesticide because they would have eaten it during the day and died long before they began to roost at night, he said. A slower-acting pesticide wouldn't have affected them all at the same time. A hail storm is unlikely because they would have had to be flying for that to happen, and at that hour red-wing blackbirds are asleep.

Rough weather had hit the state earlier Friday, but the worst of it was well east of Beebe by the time the birds started falling, said Chris Buonanno, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

But one expert said he can't discount weather as a cause.

"Thousands of birds encountered something, whether it was a lighting strike or hail or something, and that caused the trauma and death," said Robert Meese, an avian ecologist at the University of California-Davis. "I don't see any way that they could have flown into obstructions, because then the birds should have been at the base of the objects. ... This was a scattering."

The number of dead blackbirds is more than 3,000, Rowe said. "Environmental Services says they picked up approximately 2,000 birds." There were others they couldn't reach, she said, and "scavengers probably carried off quite a bit — if you're a cat, it's Christmas dinner."

Red-wing blackbirds are native to North America and gather in large flocks in the winter, generally settling near food sources for weeks at a time, said Mike Parr of the American Bird Conservancy in Washington, D.C.

The number of birds that died Friday is high, he noted, but "to put the number in perspective, windows, communication towers, power lines and wind turbines kill tens of millions of birds each year, probably hundreds of millions."

In an unrelated event, a major fish kill was reported on the Arkansas River last week, Stephens said. Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 dead freshwater drum were found along a 17-mile stretch of the river, about 100 miles from Beebe, between the Ozark Lock and Dam and a point due south of Hartman.

State officials believe the fish kill was disease related. Specimens have been sent to state labs for testing.

The incidents — coming during a traditionally slow news period — made for a wild weekend for state Game and Fish staffers.

"It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced and I've been doing this for 25 years," Stephens said. "I'll bet you I've had 100 calls today, I've done 25 interviews. I did Al-Jazeera live last night."

Sledgehammer Killer Wants Off Death Row

NBC- In 1997, Todd Rizzo used a sledgehammer to kill a 13-year-old boy just to see what it was like to kill someone. Now his attorneys are trying to get Rizzo, 32, off death row by arguing his death sentence is cruel and unusual punishment.

The Connecticut Supreme Court heard Rizzo's death penalty appeal on Friday.

Rizzo pleaded guilty in 1999 to luring Stanley Edwards IV into his back yard and bludgeoning him with a sledgehammer. Rizzo was 18 at the time of the attack.

During the hearing, his attorneys urged the Justices to declare the death penalty unconstitutional, based in part on the state legislature's vote to ban the punishment last session. The governor vetoed the bill.

"They decided even for the worst crimes, imprisoning the perpetrators for the rest of their lives with no possibility of parole is serious enough penalty to achieve retribution," said Ann Parrent, an assistant public defender.

"You're being asked to make a legislative decision here which you don't have the authority to do based on a law that even the legislature couldn't complete through the legislative process," said Harry Weller, a senior assistant state's attorney.

Rizzo's attorneys also used other arguments to try persuading the Justices, including arguing that mitigating factors like his troubled childhood and his age were not properly considered in the case.

"I submit that the proof of the myriad of mitigating factors was so clear and so compelling that the exercise of reasoned judgment could not have rejected them," said Judith Borman, an assistant public defender.

"The record does show that there was consideration of all the evidence as required by law," said Weller.

The Justices did not specify when a ruling on the appeal will come, but it is expected to take months.

The appeal comes at a time when another jury is deciding whether Steven Hayes will be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11.

Conservatives Call for Ground Zero Mosque Protest

(CNN) -- Conservative bloggers called for a protest Sunday against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

"Building the Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious freedom, but of resisting an effort to insult the victims of 9/11 and to establish a beachhead for political Islam and Islamic supremacism in New York," the group "Stop the Islamicization of America" says on its website.

"Ground Zero is a war memorial, a burial ground. Respect it," says the group, which is run by conservative blogger Pamela Geller.

"No one's telling them they can't. We're asking them not to," Geller told CNN's Joy Behar recently.

"We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilation and mass slaughter," Geller said.

She's anticipating about 1,000 people will show up, she told CNN by e-mail Sunday.

The project calls for a 13-story community center including a mosque, performing art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.

It is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

The Cordoba Initiative aims to improve relations between Muslims and the West.

"The Cordoba Initiative hopes to build a $100 million, 13-story community center with Islamic, interfaith and secular programming, similar to the 92nd Street Y," its website says, referring to the cultural institution on the upper East side of Manhattan.

Daisy Khan of the American Society for Muslim Advancement told CNN it was a "community center with a prayer space inside."

She said the project was an opportunity for American Muslims living in New York to "give back" to the community.

"There is a lot of ignorance about who Muslims are. A center like this will be dedicated to removing that ignoranceand it will also counter the extremists because moderate Muslims need a voice," she told CNN. "Their voices need to be amplified."

Local political leaders turned out in support of the community last month after Mark Williams of the conservative Tea Party Express reportedly said the mosque was for "the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god."

"To make room for peace there can be no room for hatred, bigotry or prejudice," council member Robert Jackson said at the May 20 demonstration.

The project has the backing of the Community Board of lower Manhattan. It does not require city permission to go ahead.

The plan has split people touched by the September 11 attacks.

"Lower Manhattan should be made into a shrine for the people who died there," said Michael Valentin, a retired city detective who worked at ground zero. "It breaks my heart for the families who have to put up with this. I understand they're [building] it in a respectful way, but it just shouldn't be down there."

Others such as Barry Zelman said the site's location will be a painful reminder.

"(The 9/11 terrorists) did this in the name of Islam," Zelman said. "It's a sacred ground where these people died, where my brother was murdered, and to be in the shadows of that religion, it's just hypocritical and sacrilegious. "

But Marvin Bethea, who was a paramedic at ground zero, said it was "the right thing to do."

"I lost 16 friends down there. But Muslims also got killed on 9/11. It would be a good sign of faith that we're not condemning all Muslims and that the Muslims who did this happened to be extremists," he said. "As a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against when you haven't done anything."

Makes Me MAD!

This is in response to this article: [Abandoned truck on bridge not a threat, NYPD says]

Court Fight Waged Over Brain-Damaged Mom's Triplets

(CNN) -- Abbie Dorn always wanted children, and in June 2006 she got her wish -- triplets. But during a difficult birth she suffered severe brain damage that took away her chance to raise them.

Now, her parents and former husband are locked in a legal battle over whether Dorn is capable of interacting with her children, and whether they should visit her.

On Tuesday, a judge in Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that Abbie Dorn's parents have the right to fight for visitation rights on her behalf.

The ruling clears the way for a trial, scheduled for May 13. No matter who prevails, the case is likely to lead to years of appeals that could result in a legal landmark affecting the rights of mentally incapacitated parents.

Dorn, 34, last had contact with triplets Esti, Reuvi and Yossi in October 2007, when they were toddlers. They will turn 4 on June 20.

Paul and Susan Cohen, a physician and former nurse, are conservators of Abbie Dorn's estate and care for their daughter full-time at their home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A $7.8 million medical malpractice settlement funds her treatment.

Her former husband, Daniel Dorn, is raising the triplets in Los Angeles, California.

Susan Cohen says her daughter has made considerable progress after intensive rehabilitation and now communicates by blinking her eyes.

"One slow blink means 'yes.' No response means 'no,'" said Cohen.

Daniel Dorn maintains that his former wife remains in a vegetative state. She is more than physically disabled, he contends in court papers, she is "neurologically incapacitated" and legally incompetent to make decisions involving her children.

Abbie and Dan Dorn, both devout Orthodox Jews, were in their early 20s when they met in Atlanta, Georgia, and embarked on a whirlwind romance. They married in August 2002 after dating for six months. Dan Dorn took a job with his father in Los Angeles, and his wife moved to Southern California with him.

Three years later, in the fall of 2005, Abbie became pregnant.

"They were very much in love," recalled her mother. But what happened to Abbie when her triplets were born would tear the young family apart.

According to her parents and their lawyers, during the delivery Abbie began bleeding severely and went into cardiac arrest, which deprived her brain of oxygen. Medical personnel were not able to resuscitate her for nearly 20 minutes, according to the Cohens and their lawyers.

After Abbie Dorn was revived, her condition initially seemed to improve. Her organs were functioning. Her blood was clotting. But over the next three days, she took a turn for the worse

With his wife's parents overseeing her medical care, Dan Dorn found himself a young father raising triplets. He believed Abbie's prospects of recovery were faint. One year to the day after the triplets were born, Dan notified the Cohens that he was ready to move on.

"I still love Abbie very much, but I am trying to move on and have been and will continue to parent our children, who are happy and are thriving," Dan Dorn told CNN in an e-mail.

At Dan's request, the Cohens initiated divorce proceedings on Abbie's behalf. The divorce was finalized in the fall of 2008.

Dorn and the Cohens continue to disagree over whether or not Abbie is making progress in her treatment. They also cannot agree on whether she has the ability to interact with her children.

Dan Dorn maintains in his legal papers that it is not in his children's best interest to see their mother now.

"The neurosurgeons told me in 2007 that she would not recover. I have asked for an updated neurological report," he told CNN by e-mail.

The judge granted that request at Tuesday's hearing.

CNN has obtained the 2007 medical report in which neurologist Richard Helvie described Abbie Dorn's condition as "permanent." Observing a list of mental functions, Helvie noted that she was "so impaired as to be incapable of being assessed" for most of the evaluation.

Abbie Dorn's parents and therapists tell a different story about her recovery.

"Abbie has made dramatic progress since 2008," said her mental health counselor, Dr. Robert McCarthy.

McCarthy is part of a $33,000-a-month rehabilitation program designed by Susan Cohen. He is treating Abbie using a method called neurofeedback, which trains the brain to function more efficiently.

"With the introduction of neurofeedback, she has become increasingly alert, can voluntarily bounce her legs up and down, has regained movement in her arms, and can even verbally respond 'yes' or 'no,'" McCarthy said.

Court battles like the one between Dorn and the Cohens are rare but not without precedent.

In 1979, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of a quadriplegic father, William T. Carney, stating that physically disabled parents cannot be deprived of their children because of their disability.

But there are key differences between these cases: Carney's case dealt with custody of a physically disabled parent, while the Dorns' involves visitation by a mentally incapacitated parent.

Dan Dorn contends in court documents that the legal drama is more about what the Cohens want rather than what Abbie might have wanted for her children.

"Abbie and I were happily married and very much in love. She would want the best for me and our children," he told CNN in an e-mail.

Paul Cohen visits the triplets every three months. The Cohens have asked Dorn to send videos of the children and allow the family to see each other via webcam but so far, they say, that hasn't happened.

"There's no reason for the triplets not to have a relationship with their mother, whatever that relationship may be," said Lisa Helfend Meyer, the Cohens' attorney.

Dorn's attorney, Vicki J. Greene, responded that he "wants to be the one to parent the children and tell them at an appropriate age the proper details of their life. From our perspective, he gets to make the decisions. He's the father."

Dorn, who is seeking child support from Abbie's estate, stated in court documents that he has not told the children what happened to their mother because they are too young to understand. He says he will consider taking the children to see Abbie when they are older -- if he receives medical evidence that she will be able to communicate with them.

The Cohens argue that if the children are properly prepared for the situation, the experience will not be detrimental. They have requested that the children see a psychologist to help prepare them.

For now, the Cohens will continue to hold on to hope for their daughter.

"I can't let her lose her children," Susan Cohen said.

Autism Parents Haunted by Question: Why?

(CNN) -- The retraction of a controversial study that suggested a link between autism and a childhood vaccine has been little comfort to Joe Dimino.

Dimino, whose 5-year-old son has a type of autism, said it only made him more disillusioned with the medical establishment. While Dimino does not believe vaccines cause autism, he's not entirely convinced the shots are harmless.

The now-discredited study published in the Lancet in 1998 raised the possibility of a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The study had become a rallying point for many parents questioning the safety of childhood vaccinations.

"We feel like we're getting yanked around with this information -- how can you say something and say sorry 12 years later?" said Dimino, of Belton, Missouri. "That's the way it feels."

It left him feeling "more mistrustful of both 'communities,'" he wrote in his iReport.

Even without the vaccine-autism controversy, parents of children with autism live with a constant question that no scientist or doctor has been able to answer: Why?

Why did this happen to my child? What caused it? Will he or she get better?

"What happens with a large number of families is they get a diagnosis and there are no answers," said Patricia Robinson, who is a therapist for people with ADHD, autism and Asperger's syndrome. "And what I usually see is parents start really researching for information."

Dimino's son Miles had developmental delays that made his parents suspicious. He had trouble picking up objects. At age 1½, he crawled. He could barely spit out words or phrases and had trouble talking.

Has autism touched your life? Share your stories, thoughts

After learning that Miles is in the autism spectrum, Dimino and his wife browsed libraries, ordered countless books and spent hours online learning about autism. Watch Dimino's iReport submission

Maria Collazo of Belleville, New Jersey, spent hours on YouTube, watching everything she could about autism after learning that her daughter, Madison, had the condition.

She started wondering whether her hours at work, usage of the Blackberry and screen time during her pregnancy contributed to her daughter's condition.

"I questioned all things," she said. "Did I eat something I shouldn't have? Did I expose myself to something? You question yourself. You question and you don't know -- and it's like a state of mind."

It plunged her into depression and more questions.

Parents often blame themselves, Robinson said.

"They start looking back and wondering, 'Maybe I should've done something different. Maybe I should've had organic food. I should've eaten more vitamins. I should have not used pesticides. I shouldn't live near this area.'

"There's no evidence to say the child is autistic because the parents did something wrong during their pregnancy or early years," Robinson said. "It's common human nature to look for causes and it is hard on parents, because they do blame themselves."

The constant questioning is understandable, said Dr. Judith Miles, associate director of biomedical programs at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Missouri.

"The things that keep me awake at 2 a.m. are the things I'm puzzling over and things I don't have answers to," Miles said. "I think the reason that people look at vaccines is because of the time correspondence."

I think the reason that people look at vaccines is because of the time correspondence."

--Dr. Judith Miles, professor of pediatrics and pathology


The symptoms of autism become more apparent around the age of 2, which is around the same time toddlers receive their vaccinations. This has fueled theories that the childhood vaccinations cause the disorder, but scientists say the timing is coincidental.

"That temporally makes a lot of sense and that's why some families hold on to that," said Miles, a professor of pediatrics and pathology. "I assume it's a coping mechanism. We all have coping mechanisms."

She recalled one patient who repeatedly came to the clinic with one theory after another about why her child had autism.

"It's human nature to want to know why and some people do better on certainty than others," Miles said.

Collazo still wonders: "I wish I knew what it could've been. I really don't know." View Collazo's iReport

She does not believe vaccines contributed to Madison's autism and tries to look toward her progress.

Her 3-year-old daughter does not speak and hardly communicates. She cannot call Collazo "Mommy." She recently started using a sippy cup and began to clap. She also spins and bites herself to the point of bleeding and bangs her head against the wall.

"I have a lot of faith she will get better," said Collazo, an iReport contributor. "I also have to mentally prepare myself that she may not, but it doesn't matter as long as she reaches her personal goal, I'm happy. I know she knows who I am. She loves me -- that's really what's important."

While the Lancet retraction may not sway the parties entrenched in their beliefs, Cynthia Falardeau, an iReport contributor and parent of a child with autism, said parents have more in common that they realize.

"I know that the parents in both camps love their children dearly..." said the Vero Beach, Florida, resident. "As much as parents of children on the spectrum of autism are divided on the topic, they are united in their love for their children."

Debate

"Look, there was a period in my life when I had a single action Colt 45, loaded, in my desk drawer"

Did David Carradine kill himself, was he an accidental victim of his own auto erotic asphyxiation, or was he murdered?

I ask myself after reading these from iReport.com:

JonnyTepin // 48 minutes ago
Raiseya - I thought the same thing, but I suppose that isn't something on which CNN or any other news agency cares to speculate in public! But yeah... I thought it was rather odd to hang oneself NUDE... in the closet... hmm... I had a classmate that lost his little brother who accidentally hung himself from the bunk beds. Carridine had, after all, admitted in interviews that some days he'd...more
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Raiseya - I thought the same thing, but I suppose that isn't something on which CNN or any other news agency cares to speculate in public! But yeah... I thought it was rather odd to hang oneself NUDE... in the closet... hmm... I had a classmate that lost his little brother who accidentally hung himself from the bunk beds. Carridine had, after all, admitted in interviews that some days he'd hold a loaded pistol that he kept in his drawer and contemplate ending it all. Hard to say. But yeah, when they said he was naked, I thought to myself that if I was actually gonna commit suicide, I'd like to be found with my pants on.

I'm really not surprised CNN didn't bring up the possibility, especially after Anderson Cooper's "tea bagging" comment. I wonder just how Mr. Cooper got so knowledgeable about "tea bagging". Hmmm? Can you answer that for us, Triangle-Face?less
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Raiseya // 1 hour ago
I'm surprised no one has speculated about auto erotic asphyxiation. He's in the sex capitol of the world found in a closet. Many practioners are found this way!
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trendle02 // 1 hour ago
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By the way,

Here's the link with the info from the Bangkok Post, lest someone may think I made up the information.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/17906/kung-fu-star-carradine-dead
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trendle02 // 1 hour ago
Guys,

I am not quite to sure he commited suicide. If you read the account from the Bangkok Post, you will come to a different conclusion.
Lumpini police said the body of Carradine was found curled up inside the wardrobe with one end of a shoelace tied around his penis and the other end fastened around his neck.more
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Guys,
I am not quite to sure he commited suicide. If you read the account from the Bangkok Post, you will come to a different conclusion.
Lumpini police said the body of Carradine was found curled up inside the wardrobe with one end of a shoelace tied around his penis and the other end fastened around his neck.

Both of his hands were bound with a cord which was also tied around his neck, said an officer at the station who requested anonymity.
Mysteriously, a footprint found on the bed did not match the shoes worn by Carradine.

THEN, on CNN.com, now:

Binder said a producer of the movie, "Stretch," which A member of the emergency crew who was called to the hotel after a maid found Carradine told CNN that a yellow nylon rope was tied around the actor's neck and a black rope was around his genitals. The source asked not to be identified.

"I do not know if you want to call it accidental," Chuck Binder, Carradine's manager, told CNN's Larry King on Thursday. He said Carradine's career was on a roll and his life was on a resurgence.

Binder said a producer of the movie, "Stretch," which Carradine was to act in, called him from Thailand to tell him what was happening there.

"I do not want to get in the middle of this whole investigation, but this guy said to me for sure there was foul play," Binder said.

Actor Michael Madsen told King that the one thing Carradine's wife, Annie Bierman, wanted everyone to know is, "David was not suicidal."

Foul play? Really?

Suicide, sex gone wrong, or murder? You be the judge.

Man Charged in Slaying of Kansas Abortion Doctor

(CNN) -- A 51-year-old man was in a Kansas jail Monday, charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a physician whose women's clinic frequently took center stage in the debate over abortion, authorities said.

Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed while serving as an usher at his Wichita, Kansas, church Sunday morning, according to police. Tiller was one of the few U.S. physicians who still performed late-term abortions and had survived a 1993 shooting outside his clinic.

Scott Roeder from the Kansas City, Kansas, area is being held without bond in the Sedgwick County Adult Detention Facility, according to the sheriff's office Web site. He is also charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

"This is a tragedy for the Tiller family. We feel so badly about that," Clarence Roeder, Scott's uncle, said in a statement provided to CNN affiliate KMBC. "That Scott would murder the doctor in the Lutheran Church. We are also Lutherans, and it adds a double touch of sadness and irony."

Roeder is expected to appear in court early this week, law enforcement officials said.

The attack drew condemnation from Tiller supporters, from some of those who tried to shut down his practice and from President Obama, who had urged Americans to seek "common ground" on the divisive issue just two weeks ago.

"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

The shooting prompted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to direct federal marshals to "offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation," according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Tiller was killed shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday. Police found him lying dead in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, where he had been serving as an usher.

Witnesses provided a description of the gunman's car and a license plate number, said Wichita police spokesman Gordon Bassham. Police stopped a blue Ford Taurus matching the description about three hours later in Gardner, about 30 miles southwest of Kansas City, and arrested the driver.

"Other than the description the Wichita Police Department put out, we wouldn't have paid any particular attention to him. He was following all traffic laws and everything," said Lt. Mike Pfhannestiel of the Johnson County Sheriff's Office. "We didn't find a weapon on him. We did not have a weapon on him."

"We think we have the right person arrested," said Wichita police Detective Tom Stoltz. "We will investigate this suspect to the Nth degree -- his history, his family, his associates -- and we are just in the beginning stages of that."

Though the investigation is still under way, he said, "At this time we feel this is an act of an isolated individual."

Tiller had practiced medicine for nearly 40 years, said Peter Brownlie, president of the Kansas City-based regional Planned Parenthood office.

The doctor and his staff had been picketed for years, with some activists distributing leaflets around his neighborhood, Brownlie said. His clinic suffered serious damage from a bomb in the mid-1990s, and he was shot through both arms in 1993 by an anti-abortion activist who is now in federal prison.

In a written statement issued through Tiller's lawyers, his family -- his wife, four children and 10 grandchildren -- said their loss "is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America."

No motive for the killing was immediately known. If Tiller's killing stemmed from his work, he would be the fourth U.S. physician killed over abortion since 1993. Leading anti-abortion groups condemned his shooting, emphasizing that they wanted to shut down Tiller's practice by legal means.

During the 1990s, three doctors who performed abortions were slain in high-profile cases.

In 1998, a sniper killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in his Amherst, New York, home. Anti-abortion activist James Kopp was later arrested in France and is serving life in prison.

In 1994, Dr. John Bayard Britton and a volunteer escort were shot and killed outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Paul Hill, a former minister, was convicted in the killings and executed in 2003.

And in 1993, another doctor, David Gunn, was shot to death outside another Pensacola clinic. His killer, Michael Griffin, is serving a life sentence.

In addition, a nurse at a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic was maimed and an off-duty police officer was killed in a 1998 bombing by Eric Rudolph, who included abortion among his list of anti-government grievances.

Rudolph admitted to that attack and three other bombings -- including the 1996 attack on the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia -- and is serving life in prison.