Man given 10-year sentence for firebombing clinic

Thursday October 4, 2012 3:30 PM

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A homeless man who pleaded guilty to firebombing a Pensacola abortion clinic will serve 10 years in federal prison.

A judge sentenced 41-year-old Bobby Joe Rogers on Thursday. Rogers pleaded guilty in July to charges of arson and damaging a reproductive health facility.

The New Year's Day fire gutted the Pensacola Family Planning Clinic.

Rogers, a transient with a lengthy criminal history, told detectives that he had been living in a parking lot near the clinic and decided to set the fire because he was upset that abortions were performed there.

The building was the site of previous anti-abortion violence, including a double-murder in 1994 when an anti-abortion activist killed a doctor and the doctor's security escort.

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