A federal appellate court in San Francisco has reduced a $108.5-million jury award to doctors who had been threatened and intimidated by antiabortion protesters.
The doctors, who had been advised by the FBI to wear bulletproof vests to protect themselves from the protesters, will instead received $4.7 million. Jurors in Oregon had earlier fixed punitive damages at $108.5 million.
The defendants, the American Coalition of Life Activists and its members, carried posters and maintained a website called the Nuremberg Files, which listed the names and addresses of hundreds of doctors and others who provided or supported abortions.
After three doctors listed on Old West-style wanted posters were murdered, physicians sued, claiming they feared for their lives after being included on the list. <snip>
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-090705abortion_lat,0,4374001.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews