Day five of the Roeder trial: Scott Roeder, in his testimony today, decided as far back as 1993 that Dr. George Tiller needed to die.
In Kansas, Scott Roeder’s trial launches on the anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision. But this trial should be about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, not about abortion.
A Kansas judge said he would “leave the door open” for Roeder’s defense team to argue to jurors that his religious beliefs about abortion compelled him to act, possibly opening the door to a conviction on lesser charges than first-degree murder.
The Wichita Eagle reports today that Eric Rucker, former top assistant to Kansas State Attorney General Phil Kline, faces a formal ethics complaint that he made misleading comments before the Kansas Supreme Court in attempts to prosecute Dr. George Tiller for violations of Kansas law for which Tiller was repeatedly found innocent.
After vociferously denying a “necessity defense” could be mounted in the case of Scott Roeder, the man accused of shooting Kansas doctor George Tiller in May, the public defender representing Roeder is fighting prosecutors’ efforts to ban the so-called necessity defense from his trial.
Roeder’s lawyer says so-called necessity defense is a fiction of the imagination of extremist anti-choice groups.
Today, eBay removed the listing for a bible signed by radical anti-choice extremists and put up for auction as a means of raising funds for the “justifiable homicide” defense of Scott Roeder, the man charged with murdering Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of his church in May.
The description of a “prolife” bible offered for auction on eBay by a group seeking to fund a “justifiable homicide” defense for Scott Roeder uses the bible as a rationale for justifying killing providers.
Talking Points Memo offers this slideshow of items originally planned for auction on eBay by anti-choice extremists seeking to fund Roeder’s “justifiable homicide” defense in the killing of Dr. George Tiller.
The clinic protest that was not: Pro-choice advocates far outnumber those seeking to disrupt services in Nebraska; Scott Roeder attended bible study group with “anti-government” philosophy; Queensland woman with serious pregnancy complications denied access to safe abortion unless government officials act.
