Posted on 04/18/2002 9:12:41 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
A jury Thursday convicted anti-abortion activist Clayton Lee Waagner on federal car theft and firearms charges. The jury deliberated for 40 minutes before returning its verdict. Waagner did not react when the verdict was read. "I expected it," he said.
Waagner, 45, who has admitted sending hundreds of fake anthrax letters to abortuaries nationwide, faces a possible 15 years to life in prison. He will be sentenced within 90 days.
Waagner, who is not a lawyer, defended himself and told the court he was looking forward to his appeal. He declined to call any witnesses after U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott refused to allow him to base his defense on his opposition to late-term abortions, which he views as a greater evil.
Waagner was captured Dec. 5 at a Kinko's in Springdale, Ohio, after someone recognized him from a wanted poster. He had been on the FBI's most-wanted list after his escape from an Illinois jail, where he was awaiting sentencing on unrelated federal charges.
"My goal was to close abortion clinics - a day, an hour, a week, whatever I could do," Waagner said on an FBI tape played for the jury Wednesday. In court, he said, "I was going to blow up an abortion clinic: Planned Parenthood in Memphis."
In his closing argument, he told the jury the charges against him were just a cover for the government's objections to his anti-abortion activities.
Waagner, of Kennerdell, Pa., might next be taken to Philadelphia for questioning about 550 threatening letters mailed to abortuaries.
the infowarrior
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