Jury selection delayed in Scott Roeder trial By JUDY L. THOMAS The Kansas City Star

Jury selection delayed in Scott Roeder trial

By JUDY L. THOMAS

The Kansas City Star

Jury selection in the trial of the man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller has been delayed until Wednesday.

A statement issued by the court this morning said the delay was “due to additional legal issues that have surfaced over the weekend.”

Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting death of Tiller inside his church. Roeder also faces two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly threatening two ushers.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin today, with 61 jurors reporting. The process was expected to take from two days to a week.

In a surprise move on Friday, Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert said he would allow the defense to present testimony that Roeder acted “upon an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.” That means jurors could have the option of finding Roeder guilty of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a much lighter sentence than first-degree murder.

The ruling also opened the door for the defense to offer testimony about abortion. Prosecutors had intended for the trial to be a straightforward murder case and did not want it to evolve into an abortion debate.

The statement issued today said Wilbert would hear additional arguments at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on the prosecution’s earlier motion to bar Roeder from using a so-called necessity defense. That defense would argue that Roeder killed Tiller to save the lives of unborn babies. Prosecutors also asked the judge to prohibit Roeder’s defense from presenting “any evidence or argument to the jury to influence them to disregard the evidence or the law during any state of the trial, from jury selection to closing argument.”

At a Dec. 22 hearing, Wilbert banned Roeder from using a necessity defense, saying it wasn’t recognized under Kansas law. But Wilbert said he would leave the door open for arguments that Roeder was acting on an unreasonable but honest belief that deadly force was necessary to save lives — one of the definitions of voluntary manslaughter. A hearing on that issue was held on Friday.

In another unusual move, Wilbert closed the jury selection to the media, saying it would “in all likelihood create a chilling effect on the juror candor required for the state and defendant to pick a fair an impartial jury.” The Kansas City Star, Wichita Eagle, The Associated Press and KWCH-TV have asked the Kansas Supreme Court to open access to juror questioning.

In an order issued Monday, Wilbert said that about 140 potential jurors had filled out a questionnaire that asked “very personal and sensitive questions regarding their religious beliefs, their views on abortion, their knowledge of George Tiller and any pretrial publicity regarding the defendant.”

Because of that, the judge said, both sides requested that the court file the questionnaire under seal and that the media not be allowed to cover the jury selection process.

Wilbert said 61 potential jurors will be in the first panel and that and that both sides have requested that each one be questioned individually.

| Judy L. Thomas, jthomas@kcstar.com

The following order has been filed with the Clerk of the 18th Judicial District in the case of the State of Kansas vs. Scott Roeder.

18th Judicial District, District Court of Sedgwick County Kansas, Criminal Department

STATE OF KANSAS vs. Scott P. Roeder

O9CR 1462

Order Closing Juror Voir Dire

Now on this 11th day of January, 2010 this matter comes on for further findings and orders of the Court regarding exclusion of media access to the voir dire or jury selection in this matter.

The court sets forth its findings and reasons therefore as follows:

1) This case is a highly publicized case given who the victim is and the defendant’s stated reasons for his conduct.

2) The state and defendant have requested the court utilize a juror questionnaire to provide court and counsel with very sensitive, private and/or personal information that would impact the selection of a fair and impartial jury.

3) Due to the very sensitive and personal nature of the questions provided for in the questionnaire, the parties requested and the court agreed to file the questionnaire “under seal” with the court.

4) The court in drafting the questionnaire, solicited from the state and defendant the questions they wanted included in the questionnaire. In that regard, and given the nature of some of the underlying issues that could impact the selection of a fair and impartial jury, the court allowed significant latitude in the questions that would be included in the questionnaire.

5) Borrowing from the language of the questionnaires that had been utilized in this district for capital murder cases, the court assured the potential jurors that their answers would be given to court and counsel only and would be kept confidential. This was to insure candor by the jurors and to receive complete, open honest and frank answers from the potential jurors summoned in this matter.

6) On January 6, 2010, approximately 140 jurors reported to the jury assembly room to fill out the juror questionnaire.

7) Upon completion of the questionnaire, the jury coordinator collected and copied the questionnaires for court and counsel.

8) The potential jurors were asked very personal and sensitive questions regarding their religious beliefs, their views on abortion, their knowledge of George Tiller and any pretrial publicity regarding the defendant, Scott Roeder.

9) Based upon the answers set forth by the potential jurors, the state and defendant have requested individual voir dire of each juror to explore any challenges for cause, outside of the presence of entire venire, so that any individual answers won’t taint the entire panel.

10) The presence of the media or even an audio feed to the media overflow room will, in all likelihood, create a chilling effect on the juror candor required for the state and defendant to pick a fair and impartial jury.

11) The state and defendant have both requested that the media not cover the jury selection process for the reasons stated herein.

12) As a practical matter, the first panel scheduled for questioning contains 61 jurors. The entire courtroom will be needed for seating the jury with no one else in the courtroom except the court, counsel and the defendant.

13) The jury selection is expected to take several days with the three panels scheduled to appear for jury selection.

14) The court does not have the resources to sequester 140 jurors from the public and the media until the selection process has been completed.

15) Given the media coverage and publicity to date, the risk of the juror being exposed to news/publicity will be increased, despite the court’s admonitions to avoid any pretrial publicity.

16) The dissemination of information from the juror selection process would create a real and present danger to the defendant’s ability to receive a fair trial. No right ranks higher than the right of the accused to a fair trial and that must override the public’s interest to an open hearing until the jury is selected.

17) The court, is entering this order pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 10001, paragraph 6.

18) A transcript of the questions and answers will be preserved and may be provided at a later time to insure the integrity of these proceedings and the public’s confidence in the jury trial system.

19) This order supplements and further clarifies the court’s order communicated to the media through the court’s media coordinator on January 8, 2010 at 4:26 p.m.

It is therefore ordered that the jury selection process commonly referred to as voir dire, is closed to the media and the public to insure the defendant a fair and impartial jury to decide this trial.

It is so ordered.

Warren M. Wilbert

District Judge, Division 25