KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Scott Roeder confessed Monday to killing
Wichita, Kan., abortion doctor George Tiller, saying he had no regrets because
“preborn children were in imminent danger.”
In a 20-minute phone call from the Sedgwick County Jail in
Kansas, Roeder told McClatchy Newspapers that he believes shooting Tiller saved
lives.
“I’ve already been told that there’s at least four
women that have changed their minds and are going to have their babies,”
Roeder said. “Even if it was one woman, then who would have a regret for a
motive of protecting preborn children? That was the motive.”
Roeder, of Kansas City, is charged with first-degree murder
in the May 31 shooting death of Tiller. His trial is scheduled for Jan. 11.
Tiller, one of a handful of doctors in the country who
performed late-term abortions, was shot to death while ushering at his Wichita
church.
When asked specifically if he killed Tiller, Roeder replied:
“That is correct.”
But Roeder, 51, said he didn’t consider what he did to be
murder and that he had no intention of changing his plea to guilty.
“There is a distinction between killing and
murdering,” he said. “I don’t like the accusation of murder
whatsoever, because when you protect innocent life, that’s not murder.”
Lee Thompson, an attorney for the Tiller family, said
Roeder’s assertion that killing Tiller was justifiable was ludicrous.
“Any pretense that it’s justifiable is legally wrong
and reflective of the extremism that seems to characterize this act, which is
nothing more than an act of premeditated violence,” Thompson said.
Georgia Cole, spokeswoman for Sedgwick County District
Attorney Nola Foulston, said Roeder’s confession would not affect the trial.
“We will continue to pursue our case in court,”
Cole said.
Roeder said he planned to use a so-called necessity defense
at his trail, arguing that he killed Tiller to prevent a greater harm. Other
anti-abortion activists charged with violent acts have tried to use such a defense,
but with little success.
“It’s a stretch,” said William Eckhardt, a
University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor. “It’s just very unlikely
that it will be accepted. I guess the best way to say it is they’re freak
cases, and they’re rarely allowed.”
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Roeder’s public defender expressed surprise at his client’s
confession.
“I’m not sure if we’ve had a parting of our thoughts
here or what,” said Steve Osburn. “We’ll have to talk with Scott and
see what’s going on in his head, I guess.”
Roeder told McClatchy Newspapers that he plans to retain his
public defenders, but added that he also was looking at other attorneys.
In September, Roeder met with Georgia attorney Michael Hirsh
to discuss legal strategies. Hirsh is considered an authority on the justifiable
homicide defense. Roeder said that he has remained in contact with Hirsh.
Hirsh declined comment on Monday. But in a recent interview
with McClatchy Newspapers, Hirsh said: “The fact is that there is a
mountain of scientific evidence that shows the humanity of an unborn child. And
Dr. Tiller was notorious, by his own designs, for specializing in late-term
abortions. So there’s no denying by rational people the humanity of an unborn
child, and the only difference in the unborn child and you and me is size, age
and location.”
In 1992, a protester used the “necessity defense”
in appealing her trespassing conviction after she was arrested for blocking
access to a Wichita abortion clinic during Operation Rescue’s 1991 “Summer
of Mercy” demonstrations.
Elizabeth Ann Tilson’s attorney argued in court that life
began at conception; therefore, Tilson had to break the law to prevent a
greater harm — the death of another person.
Tilson’s conviction in Wichita Municipal Court was
overturned by a Sedgwick County district court judge, who held that she
violated the city’s trespassing law, but that she was absolved of any criminal
liability based upon the necessity defense.
However, the city appealed and the Kansas Supreme Court
reversed the decision, saying that the necessity defense could not be used when
the harm that was sought to be avoided was a constitutionally protected legal
activity and the harm incurred was a violation of the law.
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The court noted that numerous courts had considered whether
the necessity defense applied to cases of those who blocked access to abortion
clinics.
“Every appellate court to date which has considered the
issue has held that abortion clinic protesters, or ‘rescuers’ as they prefer to
be called, are precluded, as a matter of law, from raising a necessity defense
when charged with trespass,” the court ruled.
Accepting such a defense, the court said, would “not
only lead to chaos, but would be tantamount to sanctioning anarchy.”
Tilson appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear
the case, letting stand the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision that the defense
was not legally valid.
Roeder’s confession came the same day that a group of
anti-abortion activists, including 1996 Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, released a
declaration stating that Tiller’s killing was justifiable.
“We, the undersigned, declare the justice of taking all
godly action necessary to defend innocent human life including the use of
force,” said the statement, which is signed by Roeder and 20 others.
Some of those who signed the declaration have done prison
time for abortion clinic violence and others are currently in prison.
Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist
Majority Foundation, said Roeder’s confession and the “Defensive
Action” statement should raise a red flag with authorities.
“This clearly shows his connection to the most
extremist branch of the anti-abortion movement, which has long advocated this
defense, that somehow the murder of doctors is justifiable,” Spillar said.
“It’s a defense that should not be allowed, but it
shows his deep connections. We can only hope that law enforcement is looking
into those connections and any possible involvement in the murder of Dr.
Tiller,” she said.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
