{"id":237421,"date":"2010-01-27T12:13:15","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T17:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/27\/naf-and-aclu-ask-court-to-preclude-voluntary-manslaughter-charge-in-roeder-trial"},"modified":"2010-01-27T13:05:41","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T18:05:41","slug":"naf-and-aclu-ask-court-to-preclude-voluntary-manslaughter-charge-in-roeder-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/237421","title":{"rendered":"NAF and ACLU Ask Court To Preclude Voluntary Manslaughter Charge In Roeder Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the National Abortion Federation, the ACLU, and the ACLU of Kansas in the trial of Scott Roeder, the alleged murderer of Dr. George Tiller, asking the court to preclude Roeder from arguing his anti-abortion beliefs in support of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter rather than first degree murder.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn a civilized society we cannot allow extremists to commit murder to advance their own religious or political beliefs,\u201d said Vicki Saporta, President of the National Abortion Federation. \u201cScott Roeder should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAllowing the defense to argue that Scott Roeder\u2019s anti-abortion beliefs in any way lessen his accountability in Dr. Tiller\u2019s murder sends an ominous signal to all vigilantes,\u201d said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. \u00a0\u201cWe should all be concerned; having sincere political beliefs does not mean someone should be able to get away with murder."<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nRoeder is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller on May 31, 2009, while Dr. Tiller was attending services at his local church. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span> According to a press release from ACLU<\/span><\/span><\/span>, earlier this month in pre-trial hearings Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert ruled that he would not allow Roeder to use a justifiable homicide defense, but left open the possibility that the defense could put on evidence that would support the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. This ruling might permit Roeder to argue that he was motivated by anti-abortion beliefs and therefore should be held less accountable. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is a dangerous misinterpretation of the law,\u201d said Doug Bonney, Chief Counsel and Legal Director, ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri. \u00a0\u201cNo matter what our political or moral beliefs, we are not entitled to kill those who disagree with us. \u00a0We would not allow someone who murders a general to get a lesser sentence because the murder was motivated by a belief that war is unjustifiable.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n"Doctors who provide abortion care deserve the full protection of the law," said the release. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tThey devote their lives to ensuring that women can obtain the health care they need. \u00a0It is important that we support a woman\u2019s ability to make this most private, personal decision, and it is critical that we protect the medical professionals who care for them. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIf convicted of first degree murder, Roeder could be facing a life sentence; if convicted of voluntary manslaughter, he could receive less than 10 years for Dr. Tiller\u2019s murder. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe ACLU brief is available at http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/reproductive-freedom\/state-kansas-v-roeder-aclu-amicus-brief<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the National Abortion Federation, the ACLU, and the ACLU of Kansas in the trial of Scott Roeder, the alleged murderer of Dr. George Tiller, asking the court to preclude Roeder from arguing his anti-abortion beliefs in support of a lesser charge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}