Scott Roeder, in his testimony Thursday, decided as far back as 1993 that Dr. George
\nTiller needed to die. He thought of several different ways
\nto do it. He could not do it outside the clinic. He drove by the neighborhood
\nwhere Dr. Tiller lived but could not get in. He could not do it at the Sedgwick
\nCounty Courthouse while Dr. Tiller was on trial. In August 2008, he went into
\nReformation Lutheran Church with a Smith and Wesson 9 millimeter gun in a
\nshoulder holster under his suit coat but did not see Dr. Tiller in order to
\nkill him. He pawned his 9 mm and an SKS Chinese assault rifle. On May 18th,
\n2009, he bought a Taurus P-22 caliber handgun, one that would fit in his pocket;
\nhe picked it up on May 23rd, 2009, and then drove to Wichita to kill Dr. Tiller
\nin church on Sunday, May 24th. He did not see Dr. Tiller so drove back home to
\nKansas City, Missouri. On May 29th, he spent some time with his son, going to
\ndinner and a movie. On May 30th, he bought more ammunition then drove to
\nTopeka. He visited his childhood neighborhood, wondering if a childhood
\nfriend’s mother still lived there. He drove out to his brother’s, took target
\npractice, and when his gun stopped working right, took it in to get fixed and
\nbought more ammunition. He then drove towards Wichita, stopping to shoot on
\noccasion on his way. He carried the gun in with him on May 30th as he attended
\nSaturday night service. He did not see Dr. Tiller so he left, checked into a
\nnearby hotel, watched TV, ate dinner, prepared for the next day, and went to
\nbed. On Sunday morning, he checked out, drove to the church, backed into a
\nparking spot, went inside the church, and sat down, having not yet seen Dr.
\nTiller. After service started, he saw Dr. Tiller leave the sanctuary and
\nfollowed. A few seconds later, he put the gun against Dr. Tiller’s head and
\npulled the trigger. He ran out of the church. Realizing he was being followed,
\nhe told Gary Hoepner to stop following, he had a gun. He got to his car, and as
\nhe started to drive away, Keith Martin stepped in front of it. He told Martin
\nto move, and when Martin did not, repeated his instruction and said he had a
\ngun. Martin threw a cup of coffee into the car. Roeder drove out of Wichita and
\nstopped in "Valley View" for lunch and gas. He continued until he
\nreached Burlington where he changed out of the coffee-stained white shirt and
\ninto a denim shirt. He wrapped the loaded gun in cloth, with the intention of
\nretrieving it someday, and buried it in a pile of dirt. He then continued back
\nhome to Kansas City, Missouri. At some point, he told his attorneys where he
\nhad hidden the gun, but when they returned, the pile of dirt \u2013 along with the
\nloaded gun used to kill Dr. Tiller and threaten both Hoepner and Martin \u2013 was
\ngone.\n<\/p>\n
\nAfter testimony Wednesday, the prosecution refused to
\nrest until such time as the defense proffered \u2013 offered testimony outside the
\npresence of the jury \u2013 their witnesses. After some arguments regarding one of
\nthe witnesses, former Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline came in to deliver
\nwhat the defense expected him to testify to. After wandering off-topic a couple
\nof times, venturing into inappropriate testimony regarding legal investigations
\nthat are protected and flat out saying Dr. Tiller performed illegal abortions \u2013
\ncharges which were dismissed and others for which Dr. Tiller was acquitted \u2013
\nKline was asked to leave while the court discussed whether he would be allowed
\nto testify. Judge Warren Wilbert ruled he had nothing to offer that would be
\nwithin the scope of a murder trial and would not help Roeder’s defense, saying
\n"As I sat here and listened to Phil Kline testify, … It’s exactly what
\nthis court seeks to avoid." With no more witnesses for the defense to
\nproffer, the state rested at 11:07 am.\n<\/p>\n
\nPublic Defender Steve Osburn delivered his opening
\nstatement. Roeder, he said, felt Dr. Tiller "broke the spirit of the
\nlaw" when he performed late abortions for reasons of mental health of the
\nwoman. A preview of the rest of the day, Osburn outlined Roeder’s beliefs and
\nactions, saying Scott Roeder fired one shot into Dr. Tiller. He also threatened
\nboth Hoepner and Martin before heading out of town.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe defense called one witness: Scott P. Roeder. Before
\nthe jury came in, Roeder was asked for the record if he waived his right
\nagainst self-incrimination as guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment. He was told
\nhe would have to answer all questions asked of him and could not confer with
\nhis attorneys. He agreed and took the stand. After learning he was born in
\nDenver, Colorado, he was asked if he had sat through the whole trial and if he
\ndid not dispute the evidence with "very, very few exceptions." Roeder
\nsaid this is true.\n<\/p>\n
\nRoeder was not really religious as a child and did not \nOver the years, he thought of many different ways to kill \nIn 2000, he began traveling to Wichita to protest outside \nAs Roeder explained his position on abortion, he said his \nAt about 4:05 pm, Roeder finished testifying about his \nAs Wilbert introduced his draft proposal of the jury \nThe jury will return Friday morning to receive their \nAs we left the courthouse Thursday night, it began to Scott Roeder, in his testimony Thursday, decided as far back as 1993 that Dr. George Tiller needed to die. He thought of several different ways to do it. He could not do it outside the clinic. He drove by the neighborhood where Dr. Tiller lived but could not get in. He could not do it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245755","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\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nconsider himself Christian. In 1992, while watching The 700 Club<\/em>, Roeder decided to give himself over to Jesus Christ.
\nHe describes himself as "born-again." While he had always thought
\nabortion was wrong, he did not become interested in it until around that time.
\nIn 1993, Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon shot Dr. Tiller. Around this
\ntime, Roeder determined the only way to stop abortion–"the killing of
\nchildren" as he put it–was to kill Dr. Tiller. He never focused on any
\nother abortion provider. He visited Shannon in prison and began to protest at a
\nclinic in the Kansas City area, offering "sidewalk counseling". He
\ndid not see himself as protesting but that some people held signs and did
\nprotest alongside the counseling. During this time, he met like-minded people
\nwho also believed in murdering providers, though he did not discuss it with
\njust anyone outside the clinic. He said no one tried to talk him out of
\nkilling, though he did not tell anyone he planned on killing Dr. Tiller.\n<\/p>\n
\nDr. Tiller including chopping his hands off with a sword. He decided this would
\nnot put an end to abortion as Dr. Tiller could still teach others. He also
\nthought about assassinating Dr. Tiller with a sniper rifle, but this plan had
\nproblems. He thought about killing Dr. Tiller at his home, but his home was
\ninside a gated community and he could not get in. He felt the only place Dr.
\nTiller was vulnerable, his only "window of opportunity," was to kill
\nDr. Tiller at church where he would not be in his armored car, be without a
\nbulletproof vest, and without a bodyguard.\n<\/p>\n
\nWomen’s Health Care Services. He also protested outside Reformation Lutheran
\nChurch a couple of times. In 2002, he parked his car by St. George’s Orthodox
\nCathedral, right next to Reformation Lutheran, and walked over to the church. A
\nlaw enforcement officer stopped him and asked what he was doing there. Roeder
\nsaid he was moving to Wichita and was looking for a new church. When asked if
\nhe knew Dr. Tiller went there, he said he did not know whom Dr. Tiller was.
\nRoeder did not return to Reformation Lutheran for a few years. In August of
\n2008, he began visiting the church again. He caused no ruckus and no
\ndisruptions. He wanted the people in the church to trust him, to feel
\ncomfortable with him, so he could kill Dr. Tiller there. As Gary Hoepner
\ntestified, Roeder succeeded in this mission. He carried a gun in with him on
\nAugust 24, 2008; May 24, 2009; May 30, 2009; and May 31, 2009. He feels no
\nregret for killing Dr. Tiller. And after he did, he simply tried to go home, at
\none point even thinking he would go to work the next day.\n<\/p>\n
\nreligious beliefs and opinions on abortion "go hand-in-hand." From
\nconception forward, he explained, "It is not man’s job to take life,"
\nonly God’s, except for self-defense or the defense of others. He stated
\nuncertainty that abortion is acceptable to save a woman’s life. Other medical
\nexceptions are not acceptable, he said, only life, and certainly not mental
\nillness. Abortion is not acceptable to him in the case of incest and rape
\nbecause, "two wrongs don’t make a right."\n<\/p>\n
\nmurder of Dr. George Tiller and aggravated assaults of Gary Hoepner and Keith
\nMartin, and the defense rested. The jury is excused. We wait as the court, the
\nstate, and the defense prepare for motions regarding jury instructions. During
\nthis time, around 5:00, Mark Rudy informs the press that, shortly before Roeder
\ntestified, they informed police the location of the gun. At that time,
\nauthorities began a search in Burlington, KS.\n<\/p>\n
\ninstructions and voluntary manslaughter was not among them, the few pro-choice
\nactivists left in the courtroom breathed a sigh of relief, one expressing even
\nmore joy. The defense asked for the instruction, and arguments commenced. After
\nsome arguments, Wilbert explained in detail \u2013 largely repeating previous
\nstatements and case law \u2013 why he was denying the request. Most of the argument
\nrevolved around imminence \u2013 that Roeder believed Dr. Tiller was an imminent
\nthreat \u2013 though Wilbert stated he failed to prove this, even by his own
\nadmission by stating he killed Dr. Tiller 22 hours before he would perform
\nanother abortion. Wilbert quoted from the case that rather defines voluntary
\nmanslaughter in Kansas, and in that ruling, 2 hours was not considered
\n"imminent." Wilbert then continued: justified use of deadly force
\nrequires that the imminent threat be unlawful. And no matter what people
\nbelieve, abortion is legal and Roeder provided no information that Dr. Tiller
\nwas breaking the law. He re-emphasized another case \u2013 one that dealt with
\nprotesting Dr. Tiller many years before \u2013 that stated allowing any form of the
\nnecessity defense would "not only lead to chaos but would be tantamount to
\nsanctioning anarchy."\n<\/p>\n
\ninstructions \u2013 to convict or not on one count of first-degree premeditated
\nmurder and two counts of aggravated assault \u2013 and hear closing arguments. We
\nmay know as soon as Friday evening their verdict.\n<\/p>\n
\nsnow.<\/span> It seemed as if the sky felt the cold
\ninside the courtroom coming from Scott Roeder and opened up on Wichita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"