The Trial of Scott Roeder

Last June, I wrote about the unfortunate murder of a murderer. His name was Dr. George Tiller. Why he retained the title doctor is beyond my comprehension as his trade was performing late term abortions. In my mind, a late term abortion makes the pro-choice argument of viability moot. Tiller was himself a murderer.

Just prior to that post, Scott Roeder had killed Tiller in pre-meditated fashion. He gunned him down in the church that Tiller served as an usher. He did so on a Sunday morning near the end of services on the church grounds. All the evidence indicates that Roeder planned the murder, committed the murder, and then fled.

The trial for the murder of Tiller was conducted in Wichita Kansas last week. Roeder confessed and has admitted the facts of the case as presented by the prosecutor. Yet the trial continues. The only goal of the defense was to put abortion on trial. The defender's strategy is to gain a manslaughter conviction instead of first degree murder. The defense did not having much success with their strategy. The judge shut down all lines of questioning that might make the trial about abortion.

I followed the testimony via the Wichita Eagle reporter who is in the courtroom. He has posted summaries several times each day. Roeder's testimony was rather shocking.

"These babies were dying every day and no one was able to do anything," Roeder said. "I thought I had to do something," Roeder said he began to think about killing Tiller. "I though about running my car into his, shooting him with a rifle." But Roeder testified he feared hurting someone else, besides Tiller. "I felt if he was to be stopped (his church) was the only place he could be stopped," Roeder said. "It was the only window of opportunity I saw to stop him."
Roeder said he took the .22 Taurus with him when he went to the church on May 24, the week before the shooting. But Tiller wasn't there that Sunday.

"I had no choice but to wait," Roeder said. "Abortions were being done every day," he said. "My honest belief was that if I didn't do something they would continue to die." Roeder said he went to the church and sat in the back row in the northeast corner. He said he saw Tiller come in and look right and left then go back in the foyer before he went out and did what he thought he had to do to protect the children.

Public defender Mark Rudy asked Scott Roeder, "Scott, do you regret what you did?"
Roeder responded, "No, I don't."

During District Attorney Nola Foulston's cross examination, she asked Scott Roeder if he became familiar with the church and its services on his visits. Roeder said he did. Roeder said he planned on where to park and backed in to the space for an easy exit. He also said he went to his brother's home to take target practice to make sure the gun was in proper working order. Roeder said that the gun jammed, because it wasn't oiled. He and his brother went to Topeka to get the gun fixed and buy bullets.

Roeder said he had the gun in his pocket with his Bible when he visited George Tiller's church on May 24, the day Tiller did not attend church. Answering Foulston's questions, Roeder indicated that he was somewhat frustrated but that he would have come back as many times as needed to get the job done. Roeder also said that he'd gone to the church armed in August of 2008, carrying a gun in a holster inside his jacket.

It would be easy for pro-lifers to hope that Roeder was successful in getting manslaughter instead of first degree murder. I am not one of those pro-lifers. Roeder committed first degree murder and deserves the associated penalty. Hoping for manslaughter, or even cheering if he was successful would be inconsistent and detract from the principles pro-lifers hold. Life is precious, no matter whose. Revenge for thousands of abortions is not for man to extract.

Last Thursday, the judge removed the ability for the jury to find Roeder guilty of manslaughter. Their only option was to find him guilty or innocent of first degree murder. After reading the testimony, there can be no doubt. On Friday, the jury returned a guilty verdict after only 34 minutes of deliberations. I wonder what took them so long?

Roeder must pay for violating man's law. Tiller is already serving his sentence for violating a higher law.