Scott Roeder pushes anti-abortion cause in jail

Article:Scott Roeder pushes anti-abortion cause in jail:/c/a/2009/07/03/MN4V18IQDA.DTL

Article:Scott Roeder pushes anti-abortion cause in jail:/c/a/2009/07/03/MN4V18IQDA.DTL

Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press

Saturday, July 4, 2009

(07-04) 04:00 PDT 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 people on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, weeks after suggesting that 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.

From his cell in the 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 also has been corresponding with the 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.

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."

FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment about whether they were concerned about Roeder's jailhouse contacts.

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.

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."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/04/MN4V18IQDA.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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