Grinning often and laughing at times, Paul Hill spoke matter-of-factly about his possible execution for a shotgun attack that killed an abortion doctor and another man.
"I'm not hoping that this conviction is overturned," Hill said Tuesday. "To be quite frank with you, I am hoping it will be upheld and that I will be executed."Hill spoke in a tiny visiting room at Florida State Prison in his second interview since Dec. 6, when he was condemned to die in Florida's electric chair. The blinking lights of a Christmas tree could be seen through the window.
Asked if his actions might incite other anti-abortion activists to violence, Hill said, "Indubitably."
Asked if Jesus would have pulled the trigger, he responded, "Absolutely."
The former minister contends he committed a justifiable homicide, and he hopes it will inspire others to act to prevent abortions. Although all death sentences are automatically appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, Hill said he would ignore the appeal and not ask that it be pursued or dropped.
"I think I can save more people dead than alive," Hill said. "And that's what I'm called to do . . . save as many innocent human beings as possible."
Hill, 40, was convicted of murdering Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a volunteer escorting the doctor to the abortion clinic. Hill also wounded Barrett's wife, June.
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Wearing a bright yellow T-shirt, light blue pants and handcuffs, Hill spoke of being inspired by the fatal shooting of another abortion doctor in Pensacola and the wounding of one in Wichita, Kan., in 1993.
Hill was an obscure former minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Orthodox Presbyterian Church until he went on radio and television to espouse his belief that abortion providers should be killed.
Even then, he said he had no plans to practice what he was preaching until eight days before the shootings.
"I was praying the Lord would raise someone up to that capacity," Hill said. "And then I realized I might have been the one I was praying for."