FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence a deeply religious former Army Ranger as a terrorist for planning an abortion clinic bombing spree.
Stephen John Jordi, 35, a father of four who lived in a trailer park in Coconut Creek, Fla., pleaded guilty to a single count of attempted arson in February.
But the charge doesn't reflect the nationwide campaign of terror Jordi planned to unleash to force abortion clinics out of business, prosecutors John Schlesinger and Gerald Greenberg said in court papers.
They are asking U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn to send Jordi to prison for more than the mandatory minimum term of five years dictated by federal sentencing guidelines. The prosecutors plan to announce the specific sentence they're seeking at a June 11 hearing in Fort Lauderdale.
Jordi's crime falls under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act because he "sought to intimidate or coerce a civilian population by firebombing abortion clinics," the prosecutors stated.