Suspect confesses to killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller By JUDY L. THOMAS The Kansas City Star

Suspect confesses to killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller

By JUDY L. THOMAS

The Kansas City Star

Scott Roeder confessed Monday to killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller, saying he had no regrets because “preborn children were in imminent danger.”

In a 20-minute phone call from the Sedgwick County Jail, Roeder told The Kansas City Star that he believed shooting Tiller saved lives.

“I’ve already been told that there’s at least four women that have changed their minds and are going to have their babies,” Roeder said. “Even if it was one woman, then who would have a regret for a motive of protecting preborn children? That was the motive.”

Roeder, of Kansas City, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting death of Tiller. His trial is scheduled for Jan. 11.

Tiller, one of a handful of doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions, was shot to death while serving as an usher in his Wichita church.

When asked specifically whether he killed Tiller, Roeder replied: “That is correct.”

But Roeder, 51, said that he didn’t consider what he did to be murder and that he had no intention of changing his plea to guilty.

“There is a distinction between killing and murdering,” he said. “I don’t like the accusation of murder whatsoever, because when you protect innocent life, that’s not murder.”

Lee Thompson, an attorney for the Tiller family, said Roeder’s assertion that killing Tiller was justifiable was ludicrous.

“Any pretense that it’s justifiable is legally wrong and reflective of the extremism that seems to characterize this act, which is nothing more than an act of premeditated violence,” Thompson said.

Georgia Cole, spokeswoman for Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, said Roeder’s confession would not affect the trial.

“We will continue to pursue our case in court,” Cole said.

Roeder said he planned to use a so-called necessity defense at his trial, arguing that he killed Tiller to prevent a greater harm. Other anti-abortion activists charged with violent acts have tried to use such a defense, but with little success.

“It’s a stretch,” said William Eckhardt, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor. “It’s just very unlikely that it will be accepted. I guess the best way to say it is, they’re freak cases, and they’re rarely allowed.”

Roeder’s public defender expressed surprise at his client’s confession.

“I’m not sure if we’ve had a parting of our thoughts here or what,” Steve Osburn said. “We’ll have to talk with Scott and see what’s going on in his head, I guess.”

Roeder told The Star that he planned to retain his public defenders but added that he also was looking at other lawyers.

In September, Roeder met with Georgia lawyer Michael Hirsh to discuss legal strategies. Hirsh is considered an authority on the justifiable homicide defense. Roeder said that he has remained in contact with Hirsh.

Hirsh declined to comment Monday. But in a recent interview with The Star, Hirsh said: “The fact is that there is a mountain of scientific evidence that shows the humanity of an unborn child. And Dr. Tiller was notorious, by his own designs, for specializing in late-term abortions. So there’s no denying by rational people the humanity of an unborn child, and the only difference in the unborn child and you and me is size, age and location.”

In 1992, a protester used the necessity defense in appealing her trespassing conviction after she was arrested for blocking access to a Wichita abortion clinic during Operation Rescue’s 1991 “Summer of Mercy” demonstrations.

Elizabeth Ann Tilson’s attorney argued in court that life began at conception, so Tilson had to break the law to prevent a greater harm — the death of another person.

Tilson’s conviction in Wichita Municipal Court was overturned by a Sedgwick County district judge, who held that she violated the city’s trespassing law but that she was absolved of any criminal liability, based on the necessity defense.

The city appealed, and the Kansas Supreme Court reversed the decision, saying that the necessity defense could not be used when the harm that was sought to be avoided was a constitutionally protected legal activity and the harm incurred was a violation of the law.

The court noted that numerous courts had considered whether the necessity defense applied to cases of those who blocked access to abortion clinics.

“Every appellate court to date which has considered the issue has held that abortion clinic protesters, or ‘rescuers’ as they prefer to be called, are precluded, as a matter of law, from raising a necessity defense when charged with trespass,” the court ruled.

Accepting such a defense, the court said, would “not only lead to chaos, but would be tantamount to sanctioning anarchy.”

Tilson appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case, letting stand the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision that the defense was not legally valid.

Roeder’s confession came the same day that a group of abortion opponents, including 1996 Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, released a declaration stating that Tiller’s killing was justifiable.

“We, the undersigned, declare the justice of taking all godly action necessary to defend innocent human life including the use of force,” said the statement, which is signed by Roeder and 20 others.

Some of those who signed the declaration have done prison time for abortion clinic violence, and others are currently in prison.

Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said Roeder’s confession and the “Defensive Action” statement should raise red flags with authorities.

“This clearly shows his connection to the most extremist branch of the anti-abortion movement, which has long advocated this defense, that somehow the murder of doctors is justifiable,” Spillar said.

“It’s a defense that should not be allowed, but it shows his deep connections. We can only hope that law enforcement is looking into those connections and any possible involvement in the murder of Dr. Tiller,” she said.