Scott Roeder, Dr. Tiller's murderer, found guilty on all counts

Roeder Found Guilty

WICHITA, Kansas – A jury quickly convicted Scott Roeder on every count he faced Friday morning in the murder of Dr. George Tiller. And with that, he could be sentenced to as many as 50 years behind bars.

Roeder didn’t even flinch as a jury of his peers told him he’ll likely die behind bars for the premeditated first-degree murder of Tiller.

His defense had hoped for a conviction on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, but the judge ruled he wouldn’t allow the jury to consider those charges and that decision left his defense team in their words “helpless and hopeless.”

“We knew we were in trouble,” said Mark Rudy, public defender. “Our whole case from the very beginning frankly was based on efforts to get that jury instruction.”

Roeder admitted everything on the stand from a religious conversion while watching an episode of “The 700 Club” to his growing frustrations with the law’s lack of success in shutting down Tiller’s clinic and then finally to his decision to take the law into his own hands by hunting down the doctor in his church and shooting him to death in the lobby.

The jury did not take much time at all to find an admitted murderer guilty of the crime he openly confessed to while under oath. The defense argument that he had to take life knowing it was illegal to stop all the lawful abortions taking place did not convince the jury that there was merit in his actions, which were clearly premeditated. The judge threw out the possibility of Roeder receiving a charge of manslaughter for his actions.

Scott Roeder killed a man without remorse, and brandished his weapon at other people at the scene of the crime. He chose to do what he did, knowing it to be unlawful, and, presumably, knowing it to be wrong to kill, in general. Unless you had a "reason".

The prison system is stuffed with people who have killed people for "reasons". I'm satisfied that a murderer is facing a possible life sentence, and is off of our streets, because with "reasons" like his, who knows that he wouldn't find a justification to do it again?