"This was a show trial, a shameful disgrace," said Marra, now 42, who had been arrested several times before with Kopp in anti-abortion protests and was once chained together with him for hours at a clinic.

bitterly complained that U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara did not allow Kopp to use a justification defense, that what he did was justified to prevent more abortions. Arcara had ruled against that defense, saying basically that abortion is legal and murder is not.

Indeed. Abortion is legal. The murder of doctors is not.

Marra's argument that the assasination of Dr. Slepian was justifiable homicide, is a notion that has been popular in Army of God circles since the early 90s, when antiabortion militant Paul Hill publicized it in defense of Michael Griffin, who had murdered Dr. David Gunn. Hill organized what was then called the Defensive Action Statement, signed by about 30 people who said the was murder justified. Hill gained national attention by talking about it on the Phil Donohue show. Hill's media consultant was Gary McCullough, a veteran of Operation Rescue, its spin off, Missionaries to the Preborn, and many arrests.  McCullough called Griffin a "hero."

The FBI stayed hot on the trail to bring Kopp to justice.  The agency, reported The Buffalo News:  

used a paid informant, intercepted Kopp's e-mails to them from Europe, bugged their apartment and used a little-known technique at the time called a "sneak and peak" warrant.  The warrant allowed FBI agents to break into the couple's apartment while they were away, photograph evidence they found and then leave without telling them of the break-in until after they were arrested.  When Marra and Malvasi attended the January 2001 White Rose Banquet in Maryland as guests of honor they drove there with the informant in a van rented by the FBI, according to court documents.

I reported in 2002 about Marra and Malvesi for Salon.com,, from which the material below is adapted.

At the time, the ruins of the World Trade Center were still smoldering, and suddenly, domestic terrorism was no longer cool. For years convicted anti-abortion felons and their most vocal supporters publicly gathered  every year on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade for the White Rose Banquet to celebrate their victories and raise funds for their imprisoned martyrs, called Prisoners of Christ. Typically about 100 veterans of militant and violent anti-abortion activism gathered to network, to raise funds, and to swagger and taunt the abortion rights groups and law enforcement agencies that monitored the event closely. Convicted clinic bomber Michael Bray, for example, described the attendees at the 1997 banquet as an "august cadre of conspirators."  The name of the banquet is misappropriated from a short-lived World War II-era anti-Nazi resistance group, and was usually held in Bowie, Maryland, just a few miles outside Washington, DC.  The 2002 meeting fizzled out in the wake of 9/11, and the annual gatherings have reportedly been small quiet affairs ever since.
But the January 2001 banquet featured a blatant appeal appeal from convicted arsonist and keynote speaker, Dennis Malvesi. He thanked those who had helped him -- without naming names:

I myself have been on the receiving end of all the above scenarios, good and bad. I will always be grateful to the "quartermasters", the ones who gave me moral and material support, before and after my arrest. I encourage you all to continue the noble work of supporting your local