In Cold Blog: The Trial of Confessed Killer Scott Roeder

In Cold Blog: The Trial of Confessed Killer Scott Roeder

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By Stephen Singular

I’m in Wichita at the murder trial of Scott Roeder, who months ago admitted to gunning down abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in his church last May 31. Since confessing, Roeder has hoped to use the so-called “necessity defense” and claim in court that killing Dr. Tiller was necessary to stop the greater evil of abortion. At a December 22 hearing, Roeder’s attorneys, public defenders Steve Osburn and Mark Rudy, argued on their client’s behalf that under certain conditions the taking of a life could be justified and asked Judge Warren Wilbert to rule favorably for Roeder on employing this defense.

“This is certainly not a position I want to be in,” Judge Wilbert said, “because I am not God.”

The judge ruled against the defendant, but agreed to “leave the door open” for the defense to present evidence that Roeder had shot Dr. Tiller because of his convictions about saving the unborn. The judge further surprised nearly everyone by possibly permitting Roeder’s lawyers to ask jurors to convict their client of voluntary manslaughter, defined under Kansas law as the “unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.” A voluntary manslaughter conviction carries not capital punishment or a life sentence, but only four to six years behind bars. Wilbert’s ruling left abortion rights supporters outraged.

“Today’s perplexing decision,” said Katherine Spillar, Executive Vice President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, “is effectively back-door permission for admitted killer Scott Roeder to use a ‘justifiable homicide’ defense that is both un-justifiable and unconscionable. Allowing an argument that this cold-blooded, premeditated murder could be voluntary manslaughter will embolden anti-abortion extremists and could result in ‘open season’ on doctors across the country…”

In Boulder, Colorado, abortion doctor Warren Hern called the judge’s ruling essentially a death sentence for those in the medical profession who try to help women.

These issues wouldn’t be fully resolved until later this month, when the jury has heard all the testimony, but before closing arguments.

As the New Year started, 300 local citizens were mailed jury summonses to appear at the Wichita courthouse on January 11. A group of 61 was selected from this pool and the lawyers then began whittling them down to the final fourteen: twelve jurors and two alternates. Judge Wilbert has also ruled that prospective jurors could not be eliminated because of their beliefs about abortion.

The trial is taking place during the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and unfolding against the backdrop of Wichita’s contentious and violent abortion history. Jurors will be expected to ignore the bombing of Dr. Tiller’s clinic in 1986 and the shooting of the physician in both arms seven years later, by Shelley Shannon. They’re supposed to set aside their views about the 30 years of protest at Tiller’s clinic and the mass arrests in the streets of their city during 1991’s Summer of Mercy; to dismiss the 1,846 straight days that abortion foes gathered at the clinic leading up to Tiller’s assassination; and to disregard the trial and acquittal of the doctor himself on nineteen misdemeanor charges relating to late-term abortion last March. Roeder watched that legal proceeding from the gallery, but now he’s the one on trial.

The jurors’ job is to focus on the eyewitness testimony of those who watched Roeder gun down Tiller in his church -- and on whatever defense is ultimately allowed to present. Roeder may testify and attempt to use the courtroom to express his views on abortion.

“This is not,” Judge Wilbert has said, “going to become a trial over the abortion issue. It will be limited to his beliefs and how he came to form those beliefs.”

We shall see.

Stephen Singular will be be discussing this case from the Wichita courthouse for TruTV today, Monday January 25th and tomorrow, Tuesday, January 26th at 9 am and 1 pm Eastern time. 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

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