Jury finds Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the death of George Tiller

Jury finds Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the death of George Tiller

BY HURST LAVIANA

The Wichita Eagle

The guilty verdict was read at 11:05 a.m. Friday. But prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed that the Scott Roeder murder trial ended at 4:55 p.m. Thursday.

That’s when District Judge Warren Wilbert announced that he was not going to let the jury consider a voluntary manslaughter verdict as it deliberated the case of the shooting death of abortion provider George Tiller.

Roeder’s lawyers said their defense relied on having a voluntary manslaughter instruction sent to the jury.

“The whole case, from the very beginning, was based on our efforts to get that instruction,” defense attorney Mark Rudy said after the verdict. “From Day 1, we were aiming for manslaughter.”

The jury deliberated 37 minutes before finding Roeder guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault for pointing a gun at two men who tried block his escape.

As he did throughout most of the trial, Roeder sat expressionless when he learned the jury had convicted him of all three counts.

He remained stone-faced as District Attorney Nola Foulston announced she would seek a Hard 50 sentence when Roeder is sentenced on March 9.

The sentence — life without parole for 50 years — is reserved for the state’s most heinous crimes when the death penalty does not apply.

Tiller’s widow, Jeanne Tiller, bowed her head and held the hands of relatives as a court bailiff read the verdict.

“In the state of Kansas versus Scott Roeder, 2009-CR-1462, we the jury find the defendant, Scott Roeder, guilty of the crime of first-degree murder.”

The family left the courtroom without talking to reporters. They later released a statement through their lawyers thanking prosecutors and law enforcement officers for their efforts.

“Once again, a Sedgwick County jury has reached a just verdict,” the statement said. “We also want to thank George’s countless friends and supporters in Wichita and around the country who have offered their comfort.”

National attention

As it was all week, the street in front of the Sedgwick County Courthouse was choked Friday with satellite television trucks. The building hasn’t drawn such national interest since August 2005, when Dennis Rader was sentenced 10 life prison terms for the BTK murders.

The Roeder trial drew newspapers from both coasts and was televised nationally on TruTV, formerly known as Court TV.

The case also drew some of the nation’s most outspoken abortion opponents and abortion rights supporters.

Manslaughter issue

An hour after the verdict was read, a dozen reporters gathered for a news conference in the ninth-floor courtroom where the trial was held.

Rudy told reporters his case became “hopeless” and “helpless” after Wilbert issued his ruling Thursday. He said it left the jury with little choice.

“It was either first-degree murder or they were going to let him go,” Rudy said. “Obviously we knew they weren’t going to let him go.”

As is the case with all murder convictions, he said, the verdict will be appealed.

District Attorney Nola Foulston told reporters her office spent countless hours filing motions designed to prevent the trial from drifting into a debate on abortion. She said prosecutors fought hard to keep the voluntary manslaughter instruction from reaching the jury.

“This was not a push-button case,” she said.

The state’s voluntary manslaughter law can apply to a defendant who has an “honest but unreasonable belief” that deadly force is necessary “to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”

Roeder had hoped to claim that the “imminent deaths” he was trying to prevent were going to occur in Tiller’s clinic on the day after the shooting.

Prosecutors, however, pointed to a Supreme Court ruling that said “imminent” means immediate — not something that might happen the next day.

Foulston noted that during Roeder’s three hours of testimony on Thursday, he spoke matter-of-factly as he described how he walked up to Tiller at the Reformation Lutheran Church and shot him once in the head with a .22-caliber pistol.

“He was cool; he was calculated; he had no regrets,” she said. “It was patently apparent that this is a man who, if given the opportunity, would probably do it again.”

During the trial, Roeder said he buried the gun in a pile of dirt alongside U.S. 75 near Burlington. Rudy said at the news conference that he drove to Burlington to look for the gun six or seven months ago but was unable to find it.

He said he told Wichita police about the gun on Thursday knowing that Roeder was going to talk about it from the witness stand. As far as he knows, he said, police have been unable to find the gun.

During the state’s closing argument, prosecutor Kim Parker challenged Roeder’s claim that he was justified in killing Tiller.

“These are not the acts of a justified man,” she said. “These acts are cowardly. A justified man has no need for secrets. A justified man has no need to run or flee his actions.”

Rudy, in his closing remarks, noted that his client would have fared better if he had remained silent.

“Instead he took those seven or eight steps up to the witness stand, and he told you what he did, and he told you why he did it,” Rudy said.

“He believed that every day he failed to act resulted in deaths of more unborn.”

Rudy told the jury the state indeed proved that Roeder killed Tiller, but he said, “only you can determine if he murdered Dr. Tiller.”

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/news/story/1159805.html#ixzz0e7phf99D