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Wichita abortion murder trial commences

By Michelle Martínez, Gavel Media Senior Staff, on January 28, 2010 11:35 PM

By Michelle Martínez, Asst. News Editor -

Coinciding with the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the trial of Scott Roeder began last Friday. Roeder is being charged with murdering George Tiller, one of the nation’s only late-term abortion doctors in Wichita, Kansas.

On May 31, 2009, Roeder shot and killed Tiller in the foyer of the doctor’s church. Though Roeder publicly admitted to shooting Tiller, he pled not guilty of first degree murder, since he said he carried this out in order to “save unborn babies.” Roeder and his defense team are hoping to make the trial less about who killed Tiller, and more about why he was killed. Judge Warren Wilbert of Sedgwick County District Court, however, stated that the case cannot be turned into a debate over abortion, and such a “necessity defense” may therefore not be presented.

It is not only abortion rights groups, but also pro-life activists across the nation that have condemned Roeder’s actions. William Cody, vice president of the Pro-Life Club and A&S ’11, said that the pro-life movement has always condemned violence. “Every pro-life movement immediately condemned the shooting,” he said. “Scott Roeder has no association to any credible pro-life group.”

Numerous national pro-life movements note that the trial is not at all meaningful to their movement, since the acts are inherently unethical and stray from the principles held by most who are pro-life.

In spite of disallowing the use of Roeder’s alleged “necessity” motive in court, Wilbert is allowing Roeder’s defense team to argue that the killing can be considered voluntary manslaughter. In Kansas law, voluntary manslaughter is defined as killing with an “unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.” The possibility of lessening the charge from one of murder to voluntary manslaughter has abortion rights groups greatly worried that the Tiller trial might set a precedent convincing extremists that it is a worthwhile sacrifice that only carries up to five years in prison. Many on the pro-life side of the issue agree. “[Roeder's] murder of Tiller was absolutely wrong and he deserves to be punished accordingly,” Cody said.

Other late-term abortion providers like Warren Hern call the decision to allow this defense a “death sentence” for himself and his colleagues. But giving hope to abortion rights groups, as well as other advocates for Roeder’s conviction, is the fact that even though Wilbert has allowed Roeder to defend charges of manslaughter, it is not yet known whether the jury will be permitted to reach a verdict based on that charge. Most importantly, in order to satisfy the definition of voluntary manslaughter, Roeder’s defense must prove that there was an imminent threat to a third party.

So far, no state has ever declared a fetus a “third person.” Another obstacle for Roeder is that there was no legitimate imminent threat, given that Tiller was shot at church and not at his abortion clinic. Furthermore, District Attorney Nola Foulston is in the process of building a strong case against Roeder, proving that his actions were meticulously premeditated. Among the evidence that she intends to present to jurors is a receipt for ammunition bought shortly before the murder, a Wichita motel registry for a day Tiller happened to miss church, as well as Roeder’s calendar, which had the day of the killing highlighted.