A judge refused to let John C. Salvi III take the witness stand during his trial for the shooting of two abortion clinic receptionists after he already said he did not want to testify, his attorney said Saturday.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara said the testimony would be irrelevant because Salvi would use the time to talk about his belief in a worldwide, anti-Catholic conspiracy, defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr. said.Nina Flaherty, spokeswoman for the Norfolk County district attorney's office, would not confirm Saturday night whether the defense requested that Salvi testify or what the judge's response was.
"The only comment that (prosecutors) have at all, is Salvi was asked in open court last week to testify and he said no," Flaherty said.
Earlier in the trial, Dortch-Okara had asked Salvi whether he understood he had a right to testify in his own defense. Salvi responded that he understood his rights but declined to testify.
Salvi's attorneys wanted to put him on the the stand Wednesday to rebut a prosecution psychologist who testified he might be faking mental illness.
"We thought the best way would be to let them (the jury) see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears" how delusional he was, Carney said after the jury ended its first day of deliberations.
Dortch-Okara could not be reached at her office for comment, and she has an unlisted home telephone number. Messages left at the home and office of District Attorney William Delahunt were not immediately returned.
Salvi is charged with murdering Lee Ann Nichols, a receptionist at Preterm Health Services, and Shannon Lowney, the receptionist at Planned Parenthood, and wounding five other people in back-to-back shootings at the two Brookline clinics on Dec. 30, 1994. He has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.
The jury deliberated about 6 1/2 hours Saturday before adjourning until Monday.
Salvi's father paced the courthouse hallways during the deliberations.
"I'm praying a lot, hoping the jury sees what I see and my wife sees, and the psychiatrists," John C. Salvi Jr. said.
Nichols' mother said she also prayed as the jury deliberated.
"I do not have bitterness, because I will not allow bitterness to eat me up. But the damage he did to so many people and so many families," Ruth Nichols said. "If he is convicted, I would have an additional request that every Dec. 30 he be in solitary confinement."
Prosecutors say Salvi is an anti-abortion extremist who carefully planned his crime. Defense attorneys say he is a paranoid schizophrenic who thought he was fighting an anti-Catholic conspiracy.
Nichols said it has been hard to put her daughter's death behind her because the trial keeps opening up the wounds. Friday, when attorneys for both sides summed up their cases in dramatic and emotional closing arguments, was the hardest day of all.
"I've been here away from home, Ohio, for two months. Yesterday, I sat in the courtroom and it finally got to me. I had to leave," she said. "I thought of my daughter in a casket and I had to leave."