National Briefing | Plains Kansas: For Victim’s Family, Scant Sympathy

National Briefing | Plains

Kansas: For Victim’s Family, Scant Sympathy

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 9, 2010

In a recording posted online, Scott Roeder, who was convicted of killing the abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, compared Dr. Tiller’s family to the relatives of a hit man. In his first public comments since his trial, Mr. Roeder also criticized those who sought to keep the issue of abortion out of the proceedings, saying it was like asserting that the trial for the abolitionist John Brown was not about slavery. His 10-minute conversation with Dave Leach, an abortion opponent, was posted Monday on YouTube. Mr. Roeder said he would struggle to summon any sympathy for Dr. Tiller’s widow and four children. “The fact that George Tiller was involved in the practice that he was, similar to that of a hit man, if you could have sympathy for a hit man’s family that is the sympathy I would have,” Mr. Roeder said.