Scott Roeder Convicted of Murder
The Kansas jury deliberated a mere 40 minutes today before determining that Scott Roeder, who shot and killed abortion provider George Tillman last year, was guilty of first-degree murder.
Roeder at no point denied his actions; rather, his claim was that he committed voluntary manslaughter in attempting to stop Tiller from killing children.
He pointed out that legal avenues had failed, as had harassment and assorted terrorist attacks:
He said he had tried “sidewalk counseling” with women visiting Tiller’s Wichita, Kansas clinic to persuade them to seek an alternative to abortion and he noted that previous attacks on Tiller and his clinic — including a shooting and a bombing — had failed to stop the doctor practicing.
Tiller summed up his position thus:
There was nothing being done, and the legal process had been exhausted, and these babies were dying every day. I felt that if someone did not do something, he was going to continue . . . He’s been stopped.
Strangely, Roeder’s defense did not center upon his religion. What religion, you ask?
Roeder said he had attended church with his family when he was younger, but did not consider himself religious until he had a conversion experience while watching the “700 Club” on television in 1992.
The popular show, hosted by Pat Robertson, airs on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“I was alone in my room,” Roeder said. “That day I did kneel down and accept Christ as my savior at that time.”
After that, his views on abortion, which he had always considered wrong, became stronger, he said.
Ah, Pat Roberston’s brand of Christianity. We all know what sort of Christianity Pat Robertson preaches, don’t we? I wonder if Roeder agrees with Robertson on Haiti . . .
Judge Warren Wilbert determined that a voluntary manslaughter conviction — which would have let Roeder go free in five years — was not justified, and informed the jury that they could not consider the lesser charge. Said Wilbert in explaining his position:
There is no imminence of danger on a Sunday morning in the back of a church, let alone any unlawful conduct, given that what Tiller did at his clinic Monday through Friday is lawful in Kansas.
Wilbert’s action relieved pro-choice activists. Says Vickie Saporto of the National Abortion Federation, a voluntary manslaughter conviction
. . . would have been a tragedy and put the safety and security of abortion providers everywhere at risk.
We can’t settle political differences in this country by murdering each other.
It’s reasonable to expect a legal challenge to the conviction. As Randall Terry of Operation Rescue comments,
George Tiller murdered 60,000 babies by his own hand. Scott Roeder knew this. How can Mr. Roeder receive a fair trial if this data is kept from the jury? Will the jury be allowed to hear evidence – such as the grizzly [sic] means by which these babies were slain and disposed of – evidence that would clearly effect Mr. Roeder’s state of mind?
Did Sedgwick County District Court Judge Warren Wilbert already deny Scott Roeder a fair trial, by having a jury questionnaire that was geared to identify Christians and pro-lifers, and thereby exclude them? In other words, has His Honor denied Mr. Roeder a fair trial of a jury of his peers?
If George Tiller has murdered 60,000 Jews, would the judge exclude all Jews from the jury, or insist that only anti-Semites could be jurors?
The jury selection questionnaire asked about religious preferences and opinions on abortion. This is where Terry takes exception.
We expect commentary from Rev. Michael Bray, who attended in support of Roeder. Bray was convicted of conspiracy in an 1985 abortion clinic bombing plot, and is no stranger to promoting violent responses to abortion:
Those pro-life organizations, which have scurried to re-purge themselves and get their press releases out in condemnation of James Kopp [note: James Kopp shot an abortion provider to death in 1998, much like Scott Roeder did last year - J.D.], thwart the very movement they think to be protecting. By condemning defensive action, they belie themselves and nullify all their prolife proclamations, reducing themselves to noisy gongs. Their dignity-of-man protestations ring hollow, and their earnest pleas for the lives of the innocents are as cogent as the hollerings of a glossolalist on a hot tin roof. Rather than advance the effort to contend for justice for the womb children in our land and in the world, these “anti-violence” dupes, with their irrational rhetoric, continue to turn the movement backward. What sense can be made of one who declares, “Human beings are truly being butchered by abortionists! They are serial murderers who kill children with every abortion procedure!” and then says, “Damn that man who saved the innocent children by fatally stopping the murderer”?
…
Likewise, I call all pastors who have condemned James Kopp false. They have failed to handle God’s word soundly and they have failed to guide our fellow citizens into good citizenship, leading them instead into the same sinful condemnation of a righteous fellow citizen. Moreover, they, by such condemnation, contribute to the prolongation of this bloody scourge. They belie themselves and nullify their proclamation of the sanctity of human life.
Who knows how the movement might have been incandesced had pastors and pro-life leaders risen in support of earnest, efficacious, and forceful rescue efforts? No one can know. But we can be sure that the message sent by these errant leaders was that yes, there really is a difference between womb children and the rest of us. The least of us may be cast off with impunity. Their humanity is denied by our lack of action.
Other prominent anti-abortion activists have come out in support of Roeder in the past. He has been declared a “Christian hero” by some. We anticipate an outpouring from the extremists among the anti-abortion community, and will update this article as they come forth.
Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry and members of his new group, Insurrecta Nex, stood outside the courthouse holding signs that said, “Tiller Killed 60,000 Children,” “Give Roeder a Fair Trial,” “Roeder’s Reason: The Babies,” and “Tiller killed 60,000 children.”
What is “Insurrecta Nex“? According to their site (which doesn’t work very well in Explorer):
1.) An act or instance of revolting against death; usually violent death, murder
2.) A group of the ‘tireless minority, keen to set brushfires in the minds of men’
3.) DVD series that will change the course of human history forever, i.e. crushing childkilling underfoot, taking back civilization and enthroning Christ the King in every nation
Seems they’re happy to encourage violence.
Surely Dave Leach, the Iowa anti-abortion activist who helped Roeder put together his (shot down) “necessity” defense, will have words.
Roeder will be sentenced on March 9. The penalty for first-degree murder in Kansas is up to life in prison.
Video of the conviction:
Related posts:
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I was a little worried that he would get away with this murder by being found guilty of a lesser charge. It is good to see that most people have a real sense of justice.
I’m just wondering how the appeal will go. And waiting for more Roeder supporters to come out of the woodwork!
Roeder and his apologists keep beating the “murdered babies” drum — Roeder killed Dr. Tiller “in defence of children.” Has anybody acknowledged — on either side of the debate — how many WOMEN are now alive because of Dr. Tiller’s intervention? A late-term abortion is no joke, not something undertaken or provided frivolously, and I’ll wager that in a large number of cases it was a choice between life of the fetus or the life of the mother. Tiler was a life saver.