Justifiable homicide defense eyed in Roeder's case

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 29, 3:15 pm ET

WICHITA, Kan. – The suspect in the killing of abortion provider George Tiller is in talks with a prominent attorney who represents anti-abortion protesters and has long advocated justifiable homicide as a legal defense in such cases.

Scott Roeder, 51, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in the May 31 shooting death of Tiller in the foyer of his Wichita church. The Kansas City, Mo., man has refused to discuss his case, but he has told The Associated Press that Tiller's killing was justified to save "the lives of unborn children."

Roeder has court-appointed defense attorneys, but he apparently has now turned to Michael Hirsh, the lawyer who represented Paul Hill on appeal for killing a Florida abortion provider and his bodyguard in 1994. Hill was executed in 2003 after the Florida Supreme Court rejected Hirsh's argument that the judge should have allowed Hill to present to jurors his claim that the killings were justified to prevent abortions.

Hirsh confirmed he has spoken once to Roeder in recent weeks about representing him, but he has not yet been retained. Hirsh said he had not researched the facts of the case or Kansas law enough to know whether the justifiable homicide defense could be used but said a jury should be allowed to decide if it is applicable.

Roeder's trial is scheduled for Sept. 21, though public defender Mark Rudy said he anticipates filing for a continuance.

Rudy declined to comment on Hirsh's possible role in the case. Roeder did not respond to a letter from the AP seeking comment.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in denying Hill's appeal that his motivation would not change the outcome of the case. "As a practical matter, permitting a defendant to vindicate his or her criminal activity in this manner would be an invitation for lawlessness," the justices wrote.

But Hirsh discounted the suggestion that if a jury acquitted Roeder of murder based on such a defense, it would lead to an open season on abortion doctors.

"It has been open season on unborn children for over 30 years. I think on abortionists there will be a bag limit," Hirsh said in a phone interview this week from his Kennesaw, Ga., office.

He previously represented anti-abortion activist Regina Dinwiddie of Kansas City, Mo., who was among the first protesters targeted in 1995 under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act. Dinwiddie was barred from going within 500 feet of a clinic.

The principle of self-defense and the defense of another has been recognized for centuries, Hirsh said. But he acknowledged its use in abortion-related cases has been stifled, saying that in Hill's case, the prosecutor and judge made sure jurors wouldn't hear it.

"We don't know if it would have prevailed or not and they were scared out of their mind, and you could see it, that it might have," Hirsh said. "And so it's not fair to say it never worked. Well, it hasn't been tried, either."

Richard Levy, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said such defenses can work, but not necessarily in the context of abortion. The law requires that the threat be imminent, the force reasonable in response and the activity involved unlawful.

Any claim that killing an abortion provider is justifiable likely would fail, he said.

"In particular in the circumstances of the murder of Dr. Tiller there is an imminence problem, there is no imminent threat and, more fundamentally, the activities he was engaged in were legal," Levy said.

The question is whether a judge would allow jurors to consider that defense.

Wichita attorney E. Jay Greeno, who defended Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon for shooting Tiller in both arms in 1993, said the judge repeatedly shut her down when she tried to testify about abortions the doctor performed.

Procedurally, the judge in Roeder's case would likely hold a pretrial hearing on whether Roeder's attorneys could raise that defense at trial.

"There might be some hope that there would be jury nullification — the jury would vote to acquit — if there were right-to-life advocates within the jury who accepted the argument that an unborn child is a human being and that abortion is murder and therefore the murder of a physician who performs abortion is also justifiable," Levy said.

Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist in Des Moines, Iowa, who in 1996 reprinted the Army of God manual that lists ways to damage abortion clinics, recently wrote a legal brief for Roeder's case on the "necessity defense." He argued that had the alleged shooter not acted, the killing of hundreds of babies every week would have continued. He sent it to Roeder's public defenders, but they have not responded.

Rudy acknowledged that Roeder's attorneys have received several suggested defense strategies, adding that they have given them the "appropriate due response."

Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Suspect in Abortion Doctor George Tiller Slaying Says Such Killings Justifiable

Suspect in Abortion Doctor George Tiller Slaying Says Such Killings Justifiable

Friday , July 03, 2009

WICHITA, Kan. —

A man charged with shooting a prominent Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions has been advocating through mailings from his jail cell that such killings are justifiable and communicating with individuals on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, weeks after suggesting others might be planning similar attacks.

Scott Roeder, 51, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the May 31 death of Dr. George Tiller — an attack that reignited the national debate over late-term abortion and gave Roeder icon status among extremists in the anti-abortion movement.

Click here for photos.

From his cell in Sedgwick County jail, Roeder has been sending anti-abortion pamphlets that laud Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering an abortion provider in 1994, as an "American hero," and include examples of Hill's writings about how the killing of abortion providers is justifiable.

Hill was executed in 2003 for killing Dr. John Bayard Britton and his bodyguard outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.

Roeder has also been corresponding with Rev. Donald Spitz — whose Army of God group's Web site celebrates Hill and who says he sent Roeder seven of the pamphlets at Roeder's request — and Linda Wolfe, an Oregon activist who has been jailed about 50 times for anti-abortion activities and who is close friends with a woman convicted of shooting Tiller in the arms in 1993. She says Roeder mailed her one of the pamphlets.

No one has accused Roeder of breaking any laws because of his jailhouse correspondence. But local and federal law enforcement agencies took seriously a threat Roeder made during a June 7 interview with The Associated Press that there are "many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal." A judge raised Roeder's bond to $20 million, citing his comment to the AP, after a prosecutor argued Roeder's ability to get his message widely disseminated should lead a reasonable person to believe he is engaged in "alleged acts of American terrorism."

FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment about whether they were concerned about Roeder's jailhouse contacts. The Sedgwick County public defender's office, which is representing Roeder, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. And the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office declined to speak about the matter.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Robert Hinshaw said he has assigned a trusted person to read all of Roeder's incoming and outgoing mail. He said Roeder has received about 100 letters.

Jail officials typically check incoming mail for contraband such as pornography or drugs but do not attempt to read all of the more than 97,000 pieces of mail inmates get each year unless there is a specific concern, such as in Roeder's case. Outgoing mail is normally sealed by inmates and not read by prison officials.

Unless there is a blatant concern in an outgoing letter, such as escape plans, inmate mail is not censored. Less obvious issues are referred to the department's law department for review because of First Amendment concerns, the sheriff said.

"Everyone in this jail has all the constitutional rights, except those I can restrict for the safety and security of the facility," Hinshaw said.

Angel Dillard, a Christian music songwriter from Valley Center, Kan., said she's been questioned several times since striking up a friendship with Roeder after the Tiller shooting.

"They just wanted to check us out and make sure we weren't some nuts that were planning to pick up where Roeder left off," Dillard said. "We have no plans to do anything of violence to anyone. We are reaching out to someone who we know is totally alone right now."

Dillard and her husband have exchanged several letters with Roeder and spoken to him by phone, and she plans to visit him next week. She said Roeder has not spoken about Tiller's killing, and has only shared Biblical scripture and asked her to pray for an end to abortion.

Spitz — whose Web site likens Tiller to Adolf Hitler and features multiple essays supporting "defensive action" and justifiable homicide — said he had never heard of Roeder until Roeder's arrest and said they have never spoken specifically about the Tiller shooting.

"He did that out of the blue, came out of nowhere — a run-of-the-mill, pro-life guy and he goes out and does this," Spitz said of the alleged shooter. "He is not a run-of-the-mill, pro-life guy any more though."

Spitz, who said he became a good friend of Hill's before his execution, said he sent Roeder seven pamphlets advocating justifiable homicide that Roeder wanted to mail others. He said authorities had not contacted him about Roeder and that he has no plans to kill an abortion doctor himself.

"You have to be called to do that because when one does that your life is basically over," Spitz said.

Linda Wolfe, an anti-abortion advocate from McMinnville, Ore., who is friends with Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller in both arms 16 years ago, said Roeder mailed her a pamphlet after she mailed him a $20 money order and a letter telling him why she no longer believed killing abortion providers was justifiable.

She said Roeder asked her to pass the pamphlet along to someone else if she agreed with it, or to mail it back to him if she didn't. She said she threw it out.

"If he knew me, he wouldn't send me a pamphlet on Paul Hill — who I saw on death row," Wolfe said, explaining Hill had been a friend.

© Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright 2009 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
All market data delayed 20 minutes.

Suspect in Abortion Doctor George Tiller Slaying Says Such Killings Justifiable

Suspect in Abortion Doctor George Tiller Slaying Says Such Killings Justifiable

Friday , July 03, 2009

WICHITA, Kan. —

A man charged with shooting a prominent Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions has been advocating through mailings from his jail cell that such killings are justifiable and communicating with individuals on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, weeks after suggesting others might be planning similar attacks.

Scott Roeder, 51, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the May 31 death of Dr. George Tiller — an attack that reignited the national debate over late-term abortion and gave Roeder icon status among extremists in the anti-abortion movement.

Click here for photos.

From his cell in Sedgwick County jail, Roeder has been sending anti-abortion pamphlets that laud Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering an abortion provider in 1994, as an "American hero," and include examples of Hill's writings about how the killing of abortion providers is justifiable.

Hill was executed in 2003 for killing Dr. John Bayard Britton and his bodyguard outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.

Roeder has also been corresponding with Rev. Donald Spitz — whose Army of God group's Web site celebrates Hill and who says he sent Roeder seven of the pamphlets at Roeder's request — and Linda Wolfe, an Oregon activist who has been jailed about 50 times for anti-abortion activities and who is close friends with a woman convicted of shooting Tiller in the arms in 1993. She says Roeder mailed her one of the pamphlets.

No one has accused Roeder of breaking any laws because of his jailhouse correspondence. But local and federal law enforcement agencies took seriously a threat Roeder made during a June 7 interview with The Associated Press that there are "many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal." A judge raised Roeder's bond to $20 million, citing his comment to the AP, after a prosecutor argued Roeder's ability to get his message widely disseminated should lead a reasonable person to believe he is engaged in "alleged acts of American terrorism."

FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment about whether they were concerned about Roeder's jailhouse contacts. The Sedgwick County public defender's office, which is representing Roeder, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. And the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office declined to speak about the matter.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Robert Hinshaw said he has assigned a trusted person to read all of Roeder's incoming and outgoing mail. He said Roeder has received about 100 letters.

Jail officials typically check incoming mail for contraband such as pornography or drugs but do not attempt to read all of the more than 97,000 pieces of mail inmates get each year unless there is a specific concern, such as in Roeder's case. Outgoing mail is normally sealed by inmates and not read by prison officials.

Unless there is a blatant concern in an outgoing letter, such as escape plans, inmate mail is not censored. Less obvious issues are referred to the department's law department for review because of First Amendment concerns, the sheriff said.

"Everyone in this jail has all the constitutional rights, except those I can restrict for the safety and security of the facility," Hinshaw said.

Angel Dillard, a Christian music songwriter from Valley Center, Kan., said she's been questioned several times since striking up a friendship with Roeder after the Tiller shooting.

"They just wanted to check us out and make sure we weren't some nuts that were planning to pick up where Roeder left off," Dillard said. "We have no plans to do anything of violence to anyone. We are reaching out to someone who we know is totally alone right now."

Dillard and her husband have exchanged several letters with Roeder and spoken to him by phone, and she plans to visit him next week. She said Roeder has not spoken about Tiller's killing, and has only shared Biblical scripture and asked her to pray for an end to abortion.

Spitz — whose Web site likens Tiller to Adolf Hitler and features multiple essays supporting "defensive action" and justifiable homicide — said he had never heard of Roeder until Roeder's arrest and said they have never spoken specifically about the Tiller shooting.

"He did that out of the blue, came out of nowhere — a run-of-the-mill, pro-life guy and he goes out and does this," Spitz said of the alleged shooter. "He is not a run-of-the-mill, pro-life guy any more though."

Spitz, who said he became a good friend of Hill's before his execution, said he sent Roeder seven pamphlets advocating justifiable homicide that Roeder wanted to mail others. He said authorities had not contacted him about Roeder and that he has no plans to kill an abortion doctor himself.

"You have to be called to do that because when one does that your life is basically over," Spitz said.

Linda Wolfe, an anti-abortion advocate from McMinnville, Ore., who is friends with Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller in both arms 16 years ago, said Roeder mailed her a pamphlet after she mailed him a $20 money order and a letter telling him why she no longer believed killing abortion providers was justifiable.

She said Roeder asked her to pass the pamphlet along to someone else if she agreed with it, or to mail it back to him if she didn't. She said she threw it out.

"If he knew me, he wouldn't send me a pamphlet on Paul Hill — who I saw on death row," Wolfe said, explaining Hill had been a friend.

© Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright 2009 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
All market data delayed 20 minutes.