EBay auction to benefit Roeder defense proceeds By JUDY L. THOMAS The Kansas City Star

EBay auction to benefit Roeder defense proceeds

An eBay auction to raise money for the man charged with killing a Wichita abortion doctor launched Sunday night despite eBay’s pledge to nix it.

But organizers posted items that were less contentious than those they’d originally planned to sell, and they used spellings that make searches difficult.

“I really am hopeful that eBay can see that once this is up, that it is not a glorification of violence,” said auction organizer Dave Leach, an abortion opponent from Iowa. “If the auction stays up, it will only be because eBay has been shamed into recognizing the nonviolent nature of the items.”

EBay officials were not available Sunday for comment. But last week, they said the proposed listings violated the company’s policy regarding offensive material.

“We do not oppose all listings that raise money for legal defense funds,” said Jack Christin Jr., eBay’s associate general counsel for government relations, in a Friday statement. “However, our policy does not permit listings that benefit someone charged with or convicted of a crime.”

The auction was planned as a fundraiser for the defense of Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged in the May 31 shooting death of late-term abortion provider George Tiller. Roeder’s supporters want him to hire an attorney other than his public defenders in order to use a “necessity defense,” saying that Tiller’s killing was an act of justifiable homicide.

Items organizers said were being donated for the auction include several drawings submitted by Roeder; an Army of God manual that describes dozens of ways to shut down abortion clinics; and a prison cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller in 1993 and is serving time for clinic arsons and bombings.

On Sunday, however, the only items listed were a document of religious instruction written by a convicted clinic bomber and a Bible that belonged to Shannon.

“It has all the pro-life passages highlighted,” Leach said of the Bible.

To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334 or send e-mail to jthomas@kcstar.com.

Posted on Sun, Nov. 01, 2009 11:26 PM