10/27/09

A Different Kind of Bake Sale: Anti-Choice Extremists Plan eBay Auction for Roeder's Defense

There is no “both sides” when it comes to the violence over a woman’s right to choose if and when she gives birth. The unfortunate and tragic murder of anti-choice protester James Pouillon gave a mainstream media eager to use the “both sides” narrative their chance, and they took it, no matter how little relationship anti-choice tales of victimization had to reality.

But there really is no “both sides” here. The only murder of a protesting anti-choicer has come at the hands of Harlan Drake, a man who had exactly no relationship with the pro-choice movement, no strong opinions on abortion rights that anyone can discern, and only shot Pouillon for the same reason that spree killers pick all their victims---mainly because he was convenient and it was easy for Drake to rationalize the murder. Drake also murdered another man in a completely apolitical killing, and had plans to do so to another for equally arbitrary reasons.

Contrast that with a long string of murders of abortion providers and bombings of clinics at the hands of people deeply entrenched in the anti-choice movement, and continually supported by their anti-choice buddies. For instance, take Scott Roeder, the man accused of shooting and killing Dr. George Tiller while Dr. Tiller was attending Sunday services in his Wichita, Kansas church. Roeder not only relied on anti-choice stand-bys Operation Rescue for information on how to stalk Dr. Tiller and moral reinforcement for his choice to murder, but after the murder, he continued to enjoy the moral support and confidence of many prominent anti-choice militants, many of whom continue to visit him in jail.

And now the militant anti-choice activists are going a step further in their adoring love of Scott Roeder, and providing financial support to the man accused of the latest anti-choice homicide. Dave Leach of Iowa, a militant anti-choice activist, is organizing an eBay auction so that fans of murdering your political opponents can buy souvenirs and help pay for Scott Roeder’s defense. Leach publishes a newsletter that supports killing abortion providers, and took the time to visit Roeder after Roeder made a name for himself in domestic terrorism by getting arrested on explosives charges in 1996. Leach’s visit was while coming back after visiting Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon in prison after she was convicted for attempting to kill Dr. Tiller in 1993.

The eBay auction speaks to the love of misogynist, anti-choice kitsch that thrives in the anti-choice community. Anti-choicers who fall into the less militant camp (by not overtly calling for murder of providers) love their fetus geegaws that imply that fetuses have personalities and violent imagery that refuses to acknowledge existence of pregnant women’s bodies and personalities, but the militants apparently prefer knick-knacks of a bolder, more sadistic sort. Here are some items they’ve announced were for sale:

A bullhorn signed by Regina Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie told the Washington Post of hugging Roeder in glee after she read a statement advocating violence against abortion providers.
An Army of God manual, which has more moral support for would-be murderers.
A cookbook by a woman doing time in prison for bombing a clinic.
Signed drawing Scott Roeder has done in prison.

A veritable cornucopia of kitsch for the right wing nut that loves murder and hates women’s rights.

The question is why does the anti-choice side produce violent criminals and their conspirators, while the pro-choice side does not? It’s not impossible for the left to get militant and violent, but it simply isn’t happening in the abortion debate.

Reading The Eliminationists by David Neiwert gives us some clues. Neiwert explains what kind of rhetoric gears at least some of a group’s members to commit violence, highlighting especially the use of dehumanizing language (such as calling your opponents vermin), being absolutist, and suggesting that the only way to deal with opponents is to wipe them out.

On the third, the most obviously guilty offenders are the militants that Roeder associates with, such as the Army of God. But on the other two points, the larger anti-choice movement thrives on that kind of rhetoric.

Abortion providers are dehumanized by anti-choicers on a level that would make the people who wrote the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion proud. It’s not just that providers are accused of murdering for fun and profit, though that would probably be enough. Anti-choicers accuse doctors of stabbing born babies in the head, and of eating fetuses. Lurid accusations that providers engage in child sex rings are common. Rush Limbaugh claims that there are feminists out there who want to abort every pregnancy possible. Planned Parenthood is accused of pushing young women to have sex they wouldn’t otherwise, so they can make the money off abortions. All these accusations are about convincing anti-choice followers that their opponents aren’t really full human beings, because these behaviors so differ from anything human beings would really do.

And that’s just with providers. With women who have abortions, the dehumanizing goes to the level of rhetorically erasing them altogether, starting with insisting that the only question at hand is “when does life begin”, which implies that a fetus floats around in space, and there’s no question of a person’s rights and interests that may conflict with it. This extends to visual representations of pregnancy that imply there is no woman involved.

Then there’s the absolutist rhetoric: “Abortion is never the answer,” is a common refrain amongst anti-choicers, while pro-choicers by definition believe that every person’s situation is different and those differences deserve respect. Anti-choicers believe that it’s a full human being from conception (and sometimes before, it seems) on, whereas pro-choicers subscribe to a more nuanced view, where a fetus slowly turns into a baby over a pregnancy, and at each stage, it deserves more moral consideration, and remembering that women are human beings who deserve moral consideration as people.

Most anti-choicers use this sort of rhetoric to steel themselves for minor moral transgressions, such as harassing people trying to get medical care, invading privacy, and of course, supporting laws mandating childbirth for the unwilling. But in a few cases, this sort of rhetoric is going to compel some to violence, as we have seen all too often.

10/26/09

THE BEGINNING OF ME ACTUALLY PUTTING MY OWN WORDS INTO THIS BLOG

Up until this point in time, I have only been posting articles that would surface about Numb Nuts, aka Scott Roeder. However, the time has now come for me to begin putting my thoughts down. Some things will be reposts from my personal journal, while others will be from memory, both will be back dated accordingly, so that they come up in linear fashion in the Blog.

Right now I am very frustrated at this latest Blog posting, which speaks about the plans to set up an E-Bay auction for Numb Nuts' defense fund. Why these people can't buy a clue and get a life goes bey0nd my capacity of reasoning. Mind you, I'm as pro-life as anyone, but I'm not going to put a gun to someone's head and murder them for not seeing things my way. How hypocritical is that?! I have many opinions and theories that clash with the opinions and theories of others, which, if I were to follow the ideology of NN's and shoot anyone who disagrees with me, would quickly see the obliteration of the population.

So, with those words, I will post this first post of actual wording by me.

10/24/09

Online auction will be a fundraiser for defense of man accused in slaying of George Tiller By JUDY L. THOMAS The Kansas City Star

Online auction will be a fundraiser for defense of man accused in slaying of George Tiller

Saturday, Oct 24, 2009

Posted on Sat, Oct. 24, 2009

Online auction will be a fundraiser for defense of man accused in slaying of George Tiller

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

An Army of God manual. A prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons. An autographed bullhorn.

These are among the items that abortion foes plan to auction on eBay and other Web sites in a fundraiser for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

“This is unique,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who will sign the bullhorn. “Nobody’s ever done this before. The goal is that everybody makes money for Scott Roeder’s defense.”

One abortion-rights leader called the auction deplorable and said it could lead to more violence.

“The network of extremists promoting and defending the murder of doctors is contributing to escalating threats against clinics and doctors across the country,” said Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Roeder, charged with first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting of Tiller, is scheduled to go to trial in January.

Dave Leach, an Iowa abortion opponent who is organizing the auction effort, said he was aiming for a Nov. 1 launch.

An eBay official said the auction was unusual.

“A lot of times people will raise money for charities and that type of thing,” said spokeswoman Alina Piacentino. “But rarely is it a controversial kind.”

The company would not reveal whether eBay would permit the auction to launch.

“EBay does not allow listings that promote or glorify violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance, or items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity,” the company said in a statement.

Among items that will go on the auction block, Dinwiddie said, are three drawings she received in the mail Wednesday from Roeder. Two drawings were done by another inmate at his direction, but Roeder autographed all of them.

“They’re wonderful pencil art drawings,” she said. “They were done in jail.”

One is a sketch of David and Goliath.

“It has David with a slingshot in one hand and the head of Goliath in his other hand and the name ‘Tiller’ on Goliath’s forehead,” she said. “On the corpse on the ground, it says ‘child-murdering industry.’ ”

Leach said he was continuing to collect items.

His own donation: An Army of God manual, an underground publication for anti-abortion militants that describes dozens of ways to shut down clinics, including bombing. Leach published a reprint of the manual in 1996 in his magazine, Prayer and Action News.

“I plan to cover up the offending eight pages of bomb recipes and instead insert a note saying that in order to avoid legal problems, we advise our bomb-loving friends to seek their bomb recipes in a U.S. Army Manual, which is approved by the Justice Department,” Leach said. “I will also enclose my April 1996 issue, which contains bomb-making excerpts from a declassified U.S. Army Manual widely available in Army surplus stores.”

Another item to be auctioned, Leach said, is a collection of recipes compiled in prison by Shelley Shannon, the Oregon woman who shot and wounded Tiller in 1993 and was later convicted in a series of abortion clinic arsons and bombings.

“When they have birthdays or something in prison, they don’t have access to bake a cake,” said Leach, who recently paid a visit to Shannon in a Minnesota prison. “So they’ve figured out how to make quite a number of confectionary things.”

One recipe is for prison cheesecake, he said.

“It starts of with four little plastic tubs of pudding, a container of powdered creamer, a packet of powdered lemonade, and a little tub of cream cheese, like what you put on bagels, and stir it all together,” he said. “Shelley said it’s really pretty good.”

Leach said Shannon also is donating “her awesome handwritten book of commentary on the news and her part in it over the past few years, including her original cartoons.”

Dinwiddie, who made headlines in 1995 when a federal judge ordered her to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of abortion clinics, will contribute several items.

Dinwiddie is a friend of Roeder. She also was a friend of Paul Hill, who shot an abortion doctor and his escort to death in Pensacola, Fla., in 1994. Hill received a death sentence for the killings and was executed in 2003.

“Regina is digging out her old VHS tapes of Paul Hill in her home praying before Shelley’s trial,” Leach said. “She wants to start that one off at $500.”

The bullhorn autographed by Dinwiddie is similar to those she used when protesting outside abortion clinics.

“My original ones have all been confiscated by police,” Dinwiddie said, “but I’ll have a signed one, since I was the only person in the whole world that’s ever had an injunction against a bullhorn.”

Michael Bray, an Ohio activist who spent four years in prison for the firebombings of abortion-related facilities on the East Coast in the 1980s, is donating an autographed copy of his book, “A Time to Kill.” The book is described as “an ethical treatise on the use of force in defense of the child in the womb.”

Leach said the auction was intended to raise money for the defense of Roeder, who was being represented by public defenders.

Leach and others would like to help Roeder hire a lawyer to present what is known as a necessity defense. That strategy would argue that Tiller was killed to prevent a greater harm — killing babies. Other anti-abortion activists charged with violent crimes have tried to use such a defense but with little success.

“If we are not successful in finding a lawyer we can afford, we will distribute the money to prisoners who have sacrificed their years for the cause of saving lives,” Leach said.

Roeder said in a phone interview that he was excited about the auction.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “I appreciate all of the efforts going into that. I’m all for anything that might bring some donations in.”

But he declined to comment about whether he would use such a defense.

For their part, abortion-rights advocates said the auction was appalling.

“The idea of an eBay auction featuring a video of Paul Hill, who murdered a doctor and volunteer clinic escort; the work of Shelley Shannon, who attempted to murder Dr. Tiller; and the writings of Michael Bray and Dave Leach, individuals who promote the killing of doctors, is reprehensible,” Spillar said.

In another effort to support Roeder, Leach has produced a series of videos that he released on several Web sites, including YouTube. In the videos, Leach suggests that Roeder may not get a real trial by jury because the judge probably would refuse to allow jurors to hear why Roeder “had to do what he did.”

In his videos, Leach is “interviewed” by two girls, ages 8 and 10, who play the role of reporters on “Pee Wee TV.”

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

© 2009 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com

10/23/09

'Law & Order' bases episode on George Tiller's shooting

Posted on Fri, Oct. 23, 2009

BY DION LEFLER
The Wichita Eagle

A television drama loosely based on the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller is rubbing nerves on both sides of the abortion divide in Wichita.

Today's episode of the NBC show "Law & Order" is plotted around the shooting of a late-term abortion provider in a church — paralleling circumstances in the real-life Tiller case.

The drama brought some rare agreement between Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy adviser to the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, and Diane Wahto, a friend of Tiller and longtime advocate for abortion rights.

Both said they think the television drama may be coming too soon after the slaying of Tiller, who was shot to death May 31 while serving as an usher at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita.

A January murder trial has been scheduled for the man charged in the case, Scott Roeder, 51, a Kansas City airport shuttle driver and abortion opponent.

According to a preview of the drama, which will air at 7 p.m. on Kansas NBC affiliates, the plot centers on the case of a "Dr. Walter Benning," a late-term abortion provider who is "shot once in the back of the head during opening prayers."

The preview indicates that the actors will be grappling with differing positions on abortion through the dramatized investigation and prosecution.

"Oh my gosh," said Sullenger, when she learned of the plot of the episode.

She said she doesn't watch the show but plans to tune in tonight to see how the issues are handled.

"On first blush hearing about it, it seems tasteless — and a little grim," she said. "It gives me the creeps just hearing about it."

Operation Rescue was drawn into the real-life Tiller story because Roeder had been in contact with the group to obtain information on Tiller-related court hearings before the slaying.

Sullenger and Operation Rescue president Troy Newman have said Roeder made them nervous and was not a member of their group.

Sullenger said she doesn't see a point to basing an entertainment program on the Tiller slaying and "it seems to me they're trying to sensationalize it."

Wahto is a regular viewer of "Law & Order" and knew of the plot of tonight's show from seeing a promo on NBC.

She said she understands that the program's writers often draw ideas from news headlines and that they generally handle volatile issues tastefully.

But feelings over the Tiller shooting are "still pretty raw as far as the family is concerned" — and throughout Wichita, she said.

"It's really hard for people in the community who knew him and know his family," she said. "At this point, I wish they (the show's producers) had waited."

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

NBC’s ‘Law & Order’ to Take on Abortion Issue

October 23, 2009

By EDWARD WYATT

LOS ANGELES — “Law & Order,” the long-running NBC series about crime and punishment, rarely shies away from inflammatory topics, and Friday night it takes on one of the most contentious — abortion — for just the third time in the program’s 20 seasons.

In the show’s customary ripped-from-the-headlines style, the new episode focuses on the murder, in a church, of a doctor who performs late-term abortions. Though the episode, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, begins with the disclaimer that the story “is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event,” its outlines closely track the case of Dr. George R. Tiller, a prominent provider of late-term abortions who was shot and killed in a church in Wichita, Kan., on May 31.

Leading up to what is essentially a character-driven debate about abortion, NBC has tread a fine line between promoting the episode and its topic to attract viewers to an otherwise slow night of television and trying not to draw too much attention to it.

The network ranks last this season among the four major broadcast networks in total viewers and among young adults. It has promoted its abortion episode to television writers, sending a screening copy along with a letter from Dick Wolf, the creator and an executive producer of the series, who called it “the most controversial episode of the series” since it first addressed the topic in its debut season.

The network similarly promoted an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” that was broadcast on Wednesday that dealt with pedophila.

But Mr. Wolf and NBC executives declined to be interviewed about the decision to explore the topic of abortion. In response to questions, NBC and the producers issued a statement that said: “For 20 seasons the Emmy-winning ‘Law & Order’ has explored a variety of controversial topics, and the episode ‘Dignity’ does just that. Viewers will see a balanced, thought-provoking drama about abortion.”

“Law & Order” has twice before addressed abortion, in 1991 with “Life Choice,” a first-season episode about the bombing of an abortion clinic, and in 1995, its fifth season, with “Progeny,” which also focused on the murder of a doctor who provided abortions.

Friday’s episode does weave some significant twists of plot and character into the drama, with police officers and assistant district attorneys sometimes taking forceful stands on one side of the abortion debate or the other, only to later express doubt when their involvement in the case becomes more personal.

Abortion has been a sensitive topic for networks and advertisers at least since 1972, when an episode of “Maude” on CBS wrestled with the topic. The broadcast drew many complaints and most advertisers shunned the episode when it was repeated during the summer.

The Fox network said in July that it would not show an episode of its popular animated series “Family Guy” dealing with abortion that would have shown this season. Fox said in a statement that although it would not broadcast the episode, “we fully support the producers’ right to make the episode and distribute it in whatever way they want to ‘Family Guy’ fans.” The program’s producers sponsored a live reading of the script last summer to promote the show’s nomination for an Emmy for best comedy series, and they said it would be included on a DVD of the season’s episodes.

Carrie Drinkwater, a senior vice president for broadcast television at MPG, a media planning company, said that most advertisers have clear guidelines about when they will not advertise on an episode of a show that deals with a topic like abortion. It is likely that some scheduled advertisers dropped out of Friday’s broadcast, she said. She said while her firm has clients that sometimes advertise on “Law & Order,” none had been scheduled to have commercial spots in this episode.

An NBC executive said that the network had sold a full complement of advertising for the episode, but he declined to identify which companies would be advertising.

10/18/09

Scott Roeder Friend Charges Judge will block Right to Trial by Jury

October 18, 2009

Scott Roeder Friend Charges Judge will block Right to Trial by Jury

Video series alleges what Roeder did is more legal than what his judge is about to do

(The quotes from two law professors in this press release are actual quotes from news articles excerpted below, written about me. Contact: Dave Leach, 137 E. Leach, Des Moines IA 50315, cell 515/480-3398, AcknowledgeHimN2010@Saltshaker.US.)

Scott Roeder shot and killed late term abortionist Dr. George Tiller May 31, but Dave Leach believes the “only seriously contested issue of the trial” will concern what Tiller did that Roeder stopped, not what Roeder did.

Roeder’s judge is unlikely to ever allow Roeder’s jury to learn about that issue, Leach says. At least two law professors agree.

Leach asks, in a video series released today, [October 21], “can Americans call it a trial by jury, where the judge decides, all by himself, that your defense is no good, and won’t let you tell the jury about it? Where the judge just lets the jury judge what everyone agrees to anyway? Wouldn’t you call it ‘busy work’, to let the jury ‘decide’ facts upon which both parties already agree?” The issue is called the Necessity Defense. It is the “fact question of whether abortion is in fact unthinkably harmful enough to justify being prevented”, Leach says.

The last time a Kansas judge allowed the Necessity Defense, in 1992, he acquitted Elizabeth Tilson of blocking an abortion door. But the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the acquittal in 1993, ruling that it was a mistake to allow Tilson’s defense. (City of Wichita v. Tilson, 855 P.2d 911 (1993).”

Consistent with that, when Shelley Shannon shot Tiller in each arm in 1993, the Wichita judge in 1994 repeatedly shut her down when she tried to testify about abortions the doctor performed, according to her Wichita defense attorney, E. Jay Greeno.

The Tilson decision stated that “whether an affirmative defense exists is a question of law subject to unlimited review.” But when a judge rules that the only trial issue, and the defendant’s only defense, is a “question of law”, which the jury must never learn about, “doesn’t this violate the 6th Amendment to the Constitution”, asks Leach, “which says ‘In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a...public trial, by an impartial jury’? Doesn’t it go without saying that the 6th Amendment demands that the jury have meaningful participation in deciding the sole trial issue, especially when it is the defendant’s sole defense?”

November 13 is the court’s deadline for the prosecutor to file an expected “In Limine” motion to suppress Roeder’s defense from the knowledge of the jury. A hearing on pretrial motions is scheduled for a month later. Roeder’s trial is scheduled to begin January 11.

Leach, who is listed in Marquis’ “Who’s Who in America” and in Wikipedia, makes his claims through a video series posted at several online video sites, and at http://www.Saltshaker.US where a transcript of the videos is also posted. The videos present a fictitious news special starring 8-year-old Lexi and 10-year-old Vanessa, doubling as news reporters and later as lawyers, interviewing and debating Leach who plays himself, a law professor, and an abortionist’s personal lawyer. University of Iowa law professor Margaret Raymond agrees the “likelihood...is quite small” that Roeder will be allowed to present his defense to the jury.

“Typically, you don’t get to use that defense in murder cases,” she said. “The question would be whether the necessity defense would permit somebody to claim that something that is legally protected created a necessity to justify homicide.”

Leach agrees that is the question, but says the only reasonable answer is that when something is in fact unthinkably harmful, in the eyes of “reasonable people” represented by the jury, it cannot be a crime to prevent it, regardless of its legal status. Leach says this is the essence of the Necessity Defense, an ancient common law defense which sets aside the letter of any law which otherwise would punish life saving heroes. He quotes Black’s Law Dictionary which says “Necessity is not restrained by law; since what otherwise is not lawful necessity makes lawful....Necessity...derides the fetters of laws.”

The Tilson ruling asserts otherwise: “...one thing is clear: The harm or evil which a defendant, who asserts the necessity defense, seeks to prevent must be a legal harm or evil as opposed to a moral or ethical belief of the individual defendant.”

Leach responds, “The Tilson Court talks as if the only alternative to its ruling against Necessity would be to let the ‘belief of the individual defendant’ decide trials. No one is suggesting Roeder should go free because he believes he should! We support the 6th Amendment’s demand that the jury justify what they think ‘reasonable persons’ would justify, if they knew the evidence available to Roeder.

“As for the Tilson Court’s statement that Necessity justifies only ‘unlawful harms’, that is how Kansas 21-3211(a) defines the ‘defense of others’ defense. Clarifying one aspect of the Common Law in a statute does not repeal other details of the Common Law which are not so clarified. In fact, the Tilson ruling itself said ‘Whether the necessity defense should be adopted or recognized in Kansas may best be left for another day.’”

Tilson said “...evidence of when life begins is irrelevant and should not have been admitted.” But Leach says Roe v. Wade considered such evidence so relevant that should it ever be accepted by triers of fact, Roe itself should “collapse”. In other words, Leach says, Roe itself affirms the essence of the Necessity Defense, that no law or ruling should be enforced in any situation where a jury finds that its legalistic enforcement would cause unthinkable harm.

Leach says the Rule of Law would collapse if ultralegalism had no restraint even in situations where laws unintentionally enable unthinkable harm. “Jesus faced charges for doing great good, in violation of the letter of the law, in the view of the Supreme Court of the time. Jesus asked ‘Is it lawful to do good?’ Mark 3:4. His prosecutors had to leave him alone, because their Rule of Law could not survive their admission that it was the intent of any of their laws to criminalize good.

But whatever one thinks of the merits of the Necessity Defense, Leach says, “the fact is that where the judge decides its merits before the trial even begins, and doesn’t allow the jury to even know it exists, when it is the defendant’s only defense and the sole contested issue of a trial, only by a legal fiction can the judge say he has given Roeder his constitutional right to a trial by jury.”

Richard Levy, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, agrees the jury is unlikely to hear Roeder’s defense, even if it is his only defense. “Any claim that killing an abortion provider is justifiable likely would fail,” he said. “The question is whether a judge would allow jurors to consider that defense.”

Levy sees two problems with the defense in addition to the problem stated by Raymond that abortion is lawful: “The law requires that the threat be imminent, [and] the force reasonable in response....” Leach says the jury, but not the judge according to Roe v. Wade, is qualified to judge whether killing one abortionist is “force reasonable in response” to the 60,000 souls which that abortionist boasted of already killing, and the thousands more he would have killed. Roe said “the judiciary...is not in a position to know” what must be known to determine the harmfulness of abortion.

Leach responds to the imminence requirement from his video: “‘Imminence’ is so vaguely defined in case law that if you broke down your neighbor’s door to save him from a fire, some prosecutor would say you should have waited until the fire had actually started burning his hair. You should at least have waited until the fire was in the room! You should have waited until unthinkable harm was at least that ‘imminent’.

“But if anyone cares about saving lives, then ‘imminence’ needs to be defined in a way that permits lives to be saved when there is opportunity to save lives. Requiring Scott Roeder to wait until the next day when the abortions were resuming only requires Scott Roeder to wait to act until the window of opportunity for acting has closed, because Tiller’s office was a fortress. Imminence therefore should be defined as the nearness in time to the closing of the window of opportunity to prevent serious harm. Scott Roeder’s window of opportunity was extremely brief. He saved lives the only time he could.”

“But even if these legal objections were sound”, Leach asks, “Americans need to ask, when a judge calls the sole contested issue of the trial a ‘question of law’ which the jury is not qualified to even know about, does a citizen still have a Constitutional Right to Trial By Jury in America?”

Leach and others are planning future public awareness projects, including a 3rd Edition of the “Defensive Action Statement”, and an auction to raise funds for Scott Roeder’s defense.

Supporting Information
Links to 4 of the videos in the 5 part series:

http://www.Saltshaker.US/Scott-Roeder-Resources/TrialByJuryPt1.wmv

http://www.Saltshaker.US/Scott-Roeder-Resources/TrialByJuryPt2.wmv

http://www.Saltshaker.US/Scott-Roeder-Resources/TrialByJuryPt4.wmv

http://www.Saltshaker.US/Scott-Roeder-Resources/TrialByJuryPt5.wmv

These videos are not yet available on the internet; that is, no internet page links to them. You can’t find them without a link in my email. On October 21, God willing, I will link to them on http://www.Saltshaker.US/RoederPage.htm, where the transcript for all 5 parts is already posted, and where I will list several internet video sites such as Youtube where they will also be listed.

The Necessity Defense, defined in Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition (to look them up, look up the phrase in Latin):
“Necessity is not restrained by law; since what otherwise is not lawful necessity makes lawful. Necessitas sub lege non continetur, quia quod alias non est licitum necessitas facit licitum. 2 Inst. 326.”

“Necessity overrules the law. Necessitas vincit legem. Hob. 144; Cooley, Const. Lim. 4th Ed. 747.” “Necessity overcomes law; it derides the fetters of laws. Necessitas vincit legem; legum vincula irridet. Hob. 144.

Quotes from Law Professors Margaret Raymond & Richard Levy, and E. Jay Greeno Des Moines man hopes to free alleged Tiller assassin with ‘necessity defense’

By Jason Hancock 8/14/09 1:18 PM

(Reprinted on RHRealityCheck.org (http://www.rhrealitycheck.org) Des Moines Anti-Choicer Hopes to Free Alleged Tiller Assassin, By Jason Hancock, Created Aug 19 2009 - 7:00am)

....Margaret Raymond, a law professor at the University of Iowa who previously practiced as a criminal defense attorney, has not read Leach’s legal brief but said the likelihood that a judge will allow a jury to hear an argument of “necessity defense” in a case like this is quite small.

“Typically, you don’t get to use that defense in murder cases,” she said. “The problem with a necessity defense in this case is that it is hard to say that something that the law permits is an act that must be prohibited at the cost of death.”

Juries are only permitted to hear claims that fit within legal parameters. If the law permits the claim, the facts surrounding the claim would go to the jury to decide.

“The jury doesn’t get to hear a claim that isn’t legally plausible,” Raymond said. “If there is no legal basis for the claim, then it cannot go to the jury. Juries are not supposed to decide things outside of the law. They get to decide fact within the law.”

The necessity defense, in general terms, says that it is OK to commit a crime in order to avoid a much greater harm, she said. For instance, a person with a suspended drivers license could drive a person to the hospital if it meant saving their life.

“The question would be whether the necessity defense would permit somebody to claim that something that is legally protected created a necessity to justify homicide,” Raymond said, adding: “My guess is that this is not going to be a strong defense. The irony is that the first thing he is asking him to do in order to use a necessity defense is admit he committed the crime. That is not necessarily something a criminal defendant wants some third party going around announcing.”

Justifiable homicide defense eyed in Roeder's case ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press, | Posted: Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:15 pm

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.

Text of description of my videos at http://www.Saltshaker.US/RoederPage.htm
Script for an October 10, 2009 video press release on video sites such as Youtube and on its home page, http://www.Saltshaker.US/ Scott-Roeder-Resources.htm. It is a drama with two girls, 8-year-old Lexi and 10-year-old Vanessa, playing the roles of lawyers and news reporters, interviewing and debating myself. (Dave Leach.) I play myself, a law professor, and an abortionist's personal lawyer. This script explains with humor, and in language anyone can understand, how our project is not to urge anyone to do what Scott Roeder had to do, but to endorse giving a Christian his constitutional right to a trial by jury. It explains what courts have been doing all these years to keep abortion “legal” all these years: deny 100,000 Christians their Constitutional right to a Trial (of the only seriously contested issue of their cases) By Jury. “Nothing can be more illegal than what courts have done all these years to keep abortion ‘legal’.” It explains how courts have maintained an appearance of a right to trial by jury, and how my proposed legal strategy will strip courts of that pretense, pressuring Scott’s judge, and all future judges, to finally allow the jury to be told what the trial is all about – and how that will end abortion.) Links to downloadable video files, the same as posted on Youtube: (Not yet posted. Anticipated release date: October 10, 2009 AD)

Case citations:
State v. Branson, Sept 21, 2007, 96422. “Whether an affirmative defense exists is a question of law subject to unlimited review. See City of Wichita v. Tilson, 253 Kan. 285, 291, 855 P.2d 911, cert. denied 510 U.S. 976 (1993).”

City of Wichita v. Tilson, 855 P.2d 911 (Kan.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 976, 114 S. Ct. 468, 126 L. Ed. 2d 420 (1993) Regardless of what name is attached to the defense (and for the sake of simplicity we will refer to it as the necessity defense) one thing is clear: The harm or evil which a defendant, who asserts the necessity defense, seeks to prevent MUST BE A LEGAL HARM or evil AS OPPOSED TO A MORAL OR ETHICAL BELIEF of the individual defendant.

Contact:
Dave Leach
137 E. Leach
Des Moines IA 50315
cell 515/480-3398
AcknowledgeHimN2010@Saltshaker.US.

Posted by Editor at October 18, 2009 08:45 PM

10/5/09

Columnist (Star Parker): Social ills spring from immorality

Posted on Mon, Oct. 05, 2009

BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

Star Parker compared the killing of a Wichita abortion provider to the violence of the anti-slavery movement in a lecture that drew a standing ovation from about 400 people Monday night at Wichita State University.

Parker acknowledged that her statements in a question-and-answer session were bound to draw controversy, such as her opinions about the battle over abortion and racism.

But her passion for social conservatism pleased the mostly white, middle-aged audience at the Campus Activities Center Theatre.

Parker is an author and self-described "conservative crusader" currently on a national college lecture circuit and book tour. She's making several speeches this week in Wichita, and her campus appearance was part of the Civic Engagement Lecture Series sponsored by the Center for Student Leadership.

During her speech "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: From Entitlement to Empowerment," Parker spoke of growing up a single mother who had four abortions.

Now she's a critic of social programs, public schools and birth control.

Parker said hard work, moral responsibility and educational freedoms, such as private-school vouchers, would end poverty.

"I do not believe the No. 1 problem confronting African-Americans is racism," Parker told the audience. "I believe the No. 1 challenge confronting African-Americans is sexual immorality."

Abortion and AIDS are what threatens African-American communities, Parker said.

That brought a few gasps.

"I know it's controversial," she said.

A question about the shooting death of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller led Parker to say that accused killer Scott Roeder illustrated the hopelessness among those who oppose abortion.

"I believe we are creating an environment where people are going to feel threatened," Parker said.

She compared Roeder to Nat Turner, who led an uprising against slavery in the 1831 uprising that left 55 people dead.

"It's also just as horrible to treat this man as a hero," she said of Tiller.

Parker compared abortion to slavery and the Holocaust.

"God will answer this, just as he did with slavery and the Holocaust," she said. "Then he will let history take over and your grandchildren will ask, 'What did you do about it?' "

But Parker also said the anti-abortion movement needed to carry its protest more quietly.

"We need to tone it down," she said.

Parker implored the audience to use the vote as its weapon.

She identified her enemies by letters: the ACLU, the NAACP, AARP and WHO.

"The World Health Organization is not a credible organization," Parker said, because it advocates sex education over abstinence.

Parker was on the end of an angry shout from one woman.

"The only welfare you're for is welfare for the rich," the woman said.

But Parker said poverty had flourished, especially among minority communities, during what she called "forced integration" and "social engineering."

"We want to create an environment where they can get what they need on their own," Parker said. "Where they have the freedom to go into a store and buy whatever they want based on their own hard work."

Parker said conservative think tanks such as the one she founded — CURE, Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education — are the foundation for social change.

"We are the thinkers who come up with the new ideas," she said. "They (the left) have had the same answers for the last 50 years."

Parker will speak today during a fundraiser for Pregnancy Crisis Center. It begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Beech Activity Center, 9710 E. Central Ave.

Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling the center at 316-945-9400.

Only a few dozen tickets remained Monday night.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.

10/4/09

Deadline set for Roeder case motions

BY RON SYLVESTER

The Wichita Eagle

As early as next month, the public could begin getting a sense of how the murder trial of Scott Roeder will proceed next year.

A Sedgwick County district judge set deadlines last week for legal briefs, motions and hearing dates leading up to the trial Jan. 11 of the man accused of shooting Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Roeder, 51, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree premeditated murder.

Judge Warren Wilbert gave the defense and prosecution until Nov. 13 to file motions over legal issues that need to be decided before trial.

Each side will have a week to respond.

Pretrial motions can include such things as requests to suppress evidence from the jury, or challenges to police investigative techniques.

If further arguments or evidence are needed, Wilbert set aside Dec. 9-10 for pre-trial court hearings.

The dates were set at an informal meeting Thursday in the judge's chambers.

Roeder, 51, remains in jail in lieu of $20 million bond while awaiting trial.

Witnesses at a preliminary hearing in July identified Roeder as the man who walked up to Tiller in the lobby of his church and shot him on May 31.

During his time in jail, Roeder has received visits and communications from anti-abortion activists and supporters.

Earlier this week, the Planned Parenthood Foundation posthumously awarded Tiller its Medal of Honor for "outstanding individual contribution to sexual and reproductive health."

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.

9/28/09

In Cold Blog: The Second American Civil War

In Cold Blog: The Second American Civil War

Posted using ShareThis

By Stephen Singular

I’m from Kansas and am working on a book about slain Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller and his alleged killer, Scott Roeder, of Topeka. Both men have played parts in the new civil war America has been locked in for decades, and Kansas is an appropriate place for this struggle, as it was also a battleground in the first War Between the States. Kansas came into being in 1861 as a “free state” to stop the spread of slavery in neighboring Missouri. Inside the capitol building in Topeka today stands a towering mural of John Brown, depicting the anti-slavery leader carrying a gun in one hand and an open Bible in the other. When Roeder entered the Lutheran church where Tiller was killed last May 31, he was carrying a handgun and a worn Bible.

This new civil war isn’t about anything as tangible as slavery, but a battle between different states of mind and feeling. The core issues are not public policy, like energy or the economy, but focused on intensely private and personal matters. Should women make their own choices about reproduction or should the government dictate that decision? Is America essentially a Christian nation or should it embrace all religions and spiritual practices equally in its schools and public places? Is the acceptance of homosexuality and gay marriage a threat to society or an advance in civilization? Simply put, how much individual freedom should Americans have? The new war is about emotions more than traditional political is sues. Some have called it a fight for the soul of the nation, but others see it in more concrete terms.

“What it all comes down to is power and control,” says Topeka’s Suzanne James, who tracks white supremacist and militia groups on the far right. In years past, she followed the movements of Scott Roeder. “Men feel they’ve lost control of women and, in fact, they have. A group of white, heterosexual males in our society have a feeling of false disenfranchisement and alienation, and they’re encouraged in this feeling twenty-four hours a day by parts of the mainstream media. This group of men shares certain characteristics. They’re overly aggressive, prone to physical violence, and have run-ins with the law. Some have domestic violence backgrounds or problems paying their bills. Some are not that stable to begin with and have mental problems [as a teenager, Roeder was diagnosed as having schizophrenic tendencies].

“By associating with movements that are racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and anti-government, these people can rationalize their feelings by blaming everything on blacks, Jews, women, and the government. They’re angry to begin with, and these movements furnish them with an en dless supply of scapegoats. The more they listen to the rhetoric, the more upset they get and the more they need an escape valve.”

Until the early ‘90s, this unfolding civil war existed mostly on the fringes of America. Cable TV, the Internet, and political talk radio were just starting to break through and alter the cultural landscape, becoming an amplifier for the emotional forces beneath the society. New technology collided with angry feelings and unleashed something large and undefined. Those who were already angry or fearful now felt even more threatened. Whatever, or whoever, was unstable was about to be nurtured in its instability from many different directions. And all these developments, especially the talk show media, overwhelmed the older and slower processes of traditional fact-finding journalism. Major career opportunities emerged for those dealing in heated or even hateful opinions -- not facts.

What mattered in the new media was how deeply one felt or believed something about government or another group of people or a crime or an abortion doctor. Expressing yourself was what counted, regardless of the truth or consequences. When some in the mainstream media began labeling Dr. Tiller “a baby killer,” it wasn’t that long before somebody on the fringes showed up with a gun and Tiller was dead. The first civil war lasted only about four years. The second one has gone on for nearly forty and there’s no end in sight.

Stephen Singular is the author of nineteen books which range in topics from high-profile crimes and social criticisms, to business and sports biographies. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado. You can find out more about this author by visiting his website at stephensingular.com

© Copyright In Cold Blog

9/23/09

Start date for Roeder trial moved again

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BY STAN FINGER

The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA — Less than a week after delaying the trial for the man accused of killing abortion provider George Tiller, court officials have changed the start date again.

Jury selection for the trial of Scott Roeder will begin on Jan. 11, two weeks sooner than the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office announced on Friday.

Tiller was shot to death on the last Sunday in May at Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was serving as an usher.

Roeder, 51, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with the shooting.

Before it was initially postponed, the trial was set to begin last Monday.

Georgia Cole, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, said the latest change was made to ensure enough time had been set aside to complete the trial.

Court officials are allowing for as much as three weeks for the trial, she said.

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com.

9/18/09

Roeder trial postponed until January

Posted on Fri, Sep. 18, 2009

BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA — Scott Roeder, the man charged with killing a Wichita abortion doctor, won't go to trial until at least next year, the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office said this morning.

Roeder was scheduled to go on trial Monday, charged with first-degree murder in the May shooting death of George Tiller.

Roeder's new trial date has been set for Jan. 25, 2010.

Tiller was shot to death inside Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was serving as an usher, on the last Sunday in May.

Late-term abortion procedures at Tiller's clinic had made him a longtime target of protests by abortion opponents.

9/2/09

Scott Roeder: From the Prosperity Gospel to the Justifiable Homicide Defense

Published on Right Wing Watch (http://www.rightwingwatch.org)

Scott Roeder: From the Prosperity Gospel to the Justifiable Homicide Defense

By Kyle

Created Sep 2 2009 - 12:52pm

Earlier this week it was reported [1] that Scott Roeder, the man accused of murdering Dr. George Tiller, had hired a prominent anti-abortion attorney and planned to use a "justifiable homicide" defense. The article also reported that Roeder's defense was getting assistance from outside activists:

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.

Last night, Alan Colmes had Leach on his program [2] to defend his brief [PDF] [3] and Leach repeatedly asserted that the destruction of clinics and the murder of doctors are entirely justified. Leach insisted that Roeder was being denied a jury trial, which is untrue [4], and tried to keep the discussion narrowly focused on that issue but Colmes was having none of it and pressed him to explain how, if Roeder is found not guilty at this trial, this wouldn't give anti-abortion activists carte blanche to go out and kill abortion providers. In response, Leach asserted that a successful justifiable homicide defense would actually mean that no other abortion provider would ever be killed because activists would be able to shut down their clinics by simply blocking access to them. But Leach also asserted that such a defense would probably only work for Roeder because Tiller's actions were "pretty extreme":

The most interesting aspect of this discussion actually came after the interview with Leach ended when Roeder's ex-wife called into the show [5] and explained how, when they were first married, Roeder was an average guy but eventually became extremely invested in the prosperity gospel movement and began sending large sums of money to evangelist Robert Tilton. After that, Roeder found himself unable to pay his bills and so he stopped paying his taxes and, from there, proceeded to go completely off the deep end:

Source URL: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/scott-roeder-prosperity-gospel-justifiable-homicide-defense

Links:
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_abortion_shooting
[2] http://www.alan.com/2009/09/01/on-tuesdays-radio-show-83/
[3] http://www.saltshaker.us/AmericanIssues/RoederProposedBrief.pdf
[4] http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=10791237
[5] http://www.alan.com/2009/09/02/lindsey-roeder-wife-of-accused-tiller-killer-scott-calls-the-radio-show/

8/30/09

FBI traces members of abortion murder suspect’s study group

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009

Posted on Sun, Aug. 30, 2009

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

They met in one another’s homes on Saturdays, their Sabbath, for potluck dinners and scripture study sessions.

Among the topics: The Old Testament, their Hebrew roots and the “secret societies” attempting to control government and culture.

Among the members: Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

As the investigation continues into whether Roeder acted alone in Tiller’s May 31 death, members of the study group have found themselves in the spotlight, showing up on the witness list for the prosecution and being interviewed by the FBI.

Even a rabbi at an Overland Park congregation of Messianic Jews has been questioned, although Roeder’s group broke away after some members were asked to leave the synagogue.

“People are trying to make something out of nothing,” said Michael Clayman, an attorney who was host for the group for a time in his Merriam home.

“It was like any other Bible study around town. It was a bunch of guys having spaghetti and meatballs, talking about philosophy. It wasn’t a bunch of Jim Jones people meeting or drinking Kool-Aid or plotting things. No cult, no nothing.”

The group does help explain the foundation of some of Roeder’s beliefs, which included distrust of government and opposition to abortion.

Those attending the study group describe themselves as Messianic Jews who, unlike mainstream Jews, believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Some people who call themselves Messianic Jews, such as Roeder, are not Jewish.

Messianic Jews observe many Jewish customs, including dietary laws and holidays.

In a recent interview, Roeder said he “had become a believer” around 1992.

“I converted, born again to Christianity,” he said. “I guess you could say Messianic, or turned to Jesus, Yeshua, as my Savior.” He said Messianic believers such as himself had gone “back to our Hebrew roots.”

Roeder said he preferred going to a study group instead of a more formal religious setting because “organized religion is 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations, which are businesses.”

“We stay away from them,” he said, adding that religious organizations receiving tax-exempt status become corrupt because they are beholden to the government.

Roeder and other members of the Bible study used to attend the Or HaOlam Messianic Congregation in Overland Park but split off, some said, because the leaders did not want to hear their talk about Freemasons and other “secret societies.”

They also didn’t approve of Or HaOlam being registered as a nonprofit corporation with the state of Kansas.

Rabbi Shmuel Wolkenfeld of the Or HaOlam congregation confirmed that Roeder and the others left over disagreements. Wolkenfeld said he hadn’t seen them for several years.

“We had such divisive conversations with them,” he said. “Scott became displeased with us because we were an incorporated Kansas charity.”

He said the group also espoused conspiracy theories — including an assertion that Prince Charles is the Antichrist — and that eventually, he and the elders had to “uninvite” two of Roeder’s friends.

“With Scott, we had a bunch of discussions, then he just disappeared,” he said. “I wish we could have helped him, but he had his own opinions.”

Wolkenfeld said the congregation was shocked by Tiller’s slaying.

“Our congregation is certainly pro-life,” he said. “So for something like that to happen is abhorrent. All it does is bring disgrace on the whole cause.”

Wolkenfeld said two Wichita police detectives paid him a visit after Tiller’s murder to ask about Roeder.

“What they said was they knew we had a history with him and they were looking for any possible lead,” he said.

After leaving Or HaOlam, the group began meeting on Saturday afternoons, first at Clayman’s house and most recently at an apartment in Westport that Roeder shared with another man.

The man asked not to be identified because he fears losing his job, saying he already had lost a new roommate who discovered the man’s ties to Roeder.

The man said the study group was suspended after Roeder’s arrest.

He said he last saw Roeder the day before Tiller was killed. Roeder told him that he was going to visit his family in Topeka and didn’t come home that night. The next day, he said, the FBI knocked on his door at 4:15 p.m. and started asking questions.

Agents took his home computer and laptop and also Roeder’s computer, he said, along with some Hebrew teaching tapes. He said he’s met with FBI agents five times since Tiller’s death.

Tim Parks, who was Roeder’s roommate for five years before Roeder lived with Clayman, said he attended some of the study group’s meetings. He said, however, that “I disagreed with a lot of that stuff.” Some of the beliefs, he said, were “kind of off the wall.”

“To me, it’s PFA theology,” he said. “Plucked from air.”

Parks said he isn’t convinced that Roeder killed Tiller.

“A bunch of us think he is being framed,” said Parks, who also has been interviewed by the FBI. “To me, the entire judicial system is suspect.”

Clayman said he met Roeder about two years ago while attending a different study group. He said Roeder lived with him for 11 months but moved out April 1 because he’d lost his job and wasn’t paying his rent.

Clayman said Roeder took the abortion issue to the extreme.

“Scott believed that the Bible was literal, the word of God,” he said. “Where he went astray was he had this crazy, fanatic doctrine that you could somehow justify killing somebody just because they were an abortion doctor.”

Clayman said Roeder talked often about his belief that killing an abortion doctor was an act of justifiable homicide.

“When he brought up that in theory — but he never did threaten anybody when I was around — I said, ‘How can you repay evil with evil?’ ” he said.

Clayman said investigators won’t find any conspiracy behind Tiller’s killing, especially among the members of the study group.

“A Bible study is studying the Bible,” he said. “We’d read from the Bible and say, ‘What do you think about that?’ Then we’d discuss it. We didn’t sit around and have sacrifices in the backyard.”

As for Roeder, Clayman said, “He’s going to be tried, and he’s going to try and do a dog-and-pony show in front of the media. He wants to tell the whole world. He’s a martyr, see? That’s what he wanted to be.”

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

8/29/09

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."

Suspect in Abortion Doctor Murder Eyes Justifiable Homicide Defense

Saturday , August 29, 2009

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.

Click here for photos.