Scott Roeder

Scott Roeder, the man who murdered Dr. George Tiller, says he has no regrets, though he believes that he didn't necessarily receive a fair trial because he wasn't allowed to raise the issue of abortion in his defense:

The convicted killer of a Kansas abortion provider has little sympathy for the family of his victim, comparing them to the relatives of a hit man in a recording posted online.

In his first public comments since his trial for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, Scott Roeder also criticized those who sought to keep the issue of abortion out of the proceedings altogether, saying it was like asserting that the trial for abolitionist John Brown was not about slavery.

"My beliefs were that the lives of unborn children were being taken by abortion," Roeder said in the video posted on YouTube Monday. "How you can keep that out of the trial is beyond me, because that was the one entire motive for the action that was taken."

His 10-minute conversation with abortion opponent Dave Leach is the first in a series recorded last week that will be posted online with Roeder's blessing, Leach told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

...

"The fact that George Tiller was involved in the practice that he was, similar to that of a hit man, if you could have sympathy for a hit man's family that is the sympathy I would have," Roeder said. "But every day, George Tiller did not have any sympathy for his victims" ... Roeder maintained he did not regret his actions. "I didn't have any regrets except for maybe the fact that if the law had done what it was supposed to do, and stop Mr. Tiller, he would not have had to come to this conclusion," Roeder said. "The lives of the babies were still being taken, and there had to be action taken to save them."

You can hear the interview here, but I just wanted to point out how remarkably similar his statements are to those made by Randall Terry, all the way down to the comparisons to John Brown:

The following is a statement by Randall Terry:

"We are not coming to condone or condemn Scott Roeder's actions. That decision will soon rest with the jury. However, there are those who want to pretend this trial has nothing to do with child-killing by abortion; that is a farce. It's like saying that the trials of Nat Turner and John Brown had nothing to do with slavery.

"We will be present to be a voice for the babies who perished at George Tiller's hand, and to raise a series of 'academic questions' such as the following:

"Was John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry completely right, completely wrong, or a mix of both? Was Brown a hero or a villain?

"Was Nat Turner's slave rebellion completely just, completely unjust, or a mixture of both? Was Turner a hero or a villain?

"George Tiller murdered 60,000 babies by his own hand. Scott Roeder knew this. How can Mr. Roeder receive a fair trial if this data is kept from the jury? Will the jury be allowed to hear evidence -- such as the grizzly means by which these babies were slain and disposed of -- evidence that would clearly effect Mr. Roeder's state of mind?

Considering that Scott Roeder admitted in court to killing Dr. George Tiller, it doesn't come as much of a surprise to find out it took the jury just over a half-hour to find him guilty of murder:

A man who says he killed prominent Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller to protect unborn children has been convicted of murdering the doctor.

A jury deliberated for 37 minutes Friday before finding Scott Roeder (ROH'-dur) guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder. The 51-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Roeder testified that he shot Tiller in the head May 31 in the foyer of Tiller's church in Wichita because he believed Tiller posed an "immediate danger" to unborn children.

His attorneys were hoping to get a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter for Roeder, but the judge ruled that the jury could not consider such a verdict.

I have to admit that I am having some trouble understanding just what Randall Terry's position is regarding acts of violence against reproductive health providers.  When Dr. George Tiller was killed last year, Terry immediately weighed in, calling Tiller a "mass-murderer" who "reaped what he sowed" while simultaneously claiming that he did not advocate or support such acts of violence.

But now that the trial of Scott Roeder is underway, Terry seems to have concluded that that actions taken were entirely justified:

After three days of a relatively quiet trial, Randall Terry and three of his supporters showed up with signs in front of the courthouse this morning, as prosecutors prepared to wrap up their case for murder against Scott Roeder.

Signs reading “Tiller killed 60,000 children, Roeder’s reason, The Babies” and “Give Roeder a fair trial” greeted people arriving to the Sedgwick County Courthouse this morning.

Apparently, Terry and company believe that it was Tiller who "drove Scott Roeder to such extremity" and that his actions were not only justified, but inevitable: 

"Precious unborn babies -- like the 60,000 slain by Mr. Tiller -- have their tortured bodies thrown into dumpsters where rats and dogs devour their bodies and blood; others are strewn in landfills to decay while vermin and maggots claim their earthly remains; others are flushed into sewers where their innocent blood flows to... the devil knows where.

"Their innocent blood cries to God -- as did the blood of slaves -- for vengeance. Will God ignore this deafening cry? Will we pretend their blood has no place in this trial? This trial is the place where the rule of law and the "law of blood" meet.

"This jury has the right and duty to hear what drove Scott Roeder to such extremity. For the rule of law to prevail in court, Mr. Roeder must be able to tell the jury why he killed George Tiller. Otherwise, this trial is a farce, and both the rule of law and the law of blood are thrown aside. And as our nation's history proves, such contempt for law and blood has horrific consequences."

Terry likes to claim that he will neither "condone or condemn Scott Roeder's actions" ... but it's becoming quite clear that what he will do is defend and justify them. 

• Shepard Smith condemns Pat Robertson.
• Sarah Palin: Woman of Joy.
• Joseph Farah continues his war against Wikipedia.
• The judge in Scott Roeder's trial is allowing him use the defense that he believed the slaying of George Tiller was justified in order to save unborn children.
• Phyllis Schlafly is heading to Utah to hold a fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Cherilyn Eagar.
• Finally, despite that fact that the ant-choice "personhood" effort has been rejected everywhere it has been put on the ballot, "personhood" is going to be the theme of the 2010 March for Life.

• What do Randall Terry and the Phelps clan have in common?  They both protest Obama's daughters' school.
• Gary Bauer says the alleged Fort Hood shooter was a "sleeper agent" while the author of "Muslim Mafia" says now is the time for a "backlash" against Muslims.
• In Florida, the Tea Party is now officially a political party.
• Alan Colmes: Scott Roeder Confesses To Killing George Tiller.
• Raw Story: Palin sees conspiracy in new dollar coins.
• Think Progress: Oklahomans rally at State Capitol to protest anti-choice law that would post abortion details online.
• Media Matters: The Washington Times' history of anti-gay rhetoric.
• Finally, quote of the day from the Texas Freedom Network: “Am I a religious fanatic? Absolutely. You’d have to be to do what I do.” – State Board of Education member Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, talking about how he approaches public education.

You have to hand it to Alan Colmes.  Even though I spend my days wallowing in right-wing insanity for this blog, I don't know that I could tolerate the prospect of actually debating any of the people we write about, but Colmes does it day in and day out.

Case in point: his interview last night with Randall Terry about his "Pelosi and Reed Should Burn in Hell" contest.  Terry insisted the contest was "somewhat tongue and cheek" but when the conversation turned toward the issue of covering reproductive health needs in heathcare reform, Colmes informed Terry that Focus on the Family provides its employees health insurance through Principal, an insurance company that covers "abortion services," Terry was shocked by the news and said he'd be contacting James Dobson about it.  So it looks like Focus on the Family ought to be expecting a visit from Terry and his theater troop in the near future.

Perhaps the most interesting exchange came when Colmes asked Terry is he had any sympathy for Scott Roeder, the man accused of killing Dr. George Tiller and Terry went silent, saying he'd never thought about it.  Eventually, Terry suggested that his views on Roeder's alleged actions depended on whether he acted in order to stop Tiller from carrying out more abortions and thereby saving babies or whether he acted in order to punish Tiller for his past abortion procedures.  The latter, Terry seemed to suggest, was completely different from the former and Roeder's actions should be judged accordingly. 

But in the end, the one person for whom Terry has no sympathy at all was Tiller himself, whom Terry called "one of the most evil, damnable, demonic men on the planet, every bit as vile as the worst Nazis" and a "son of a bitch who deserved to rot in hell":

Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a lengthy piece on the late George Tiller, who was gunned down by an anti-abortion zealot while attending church in May.  The piece focused on Tiller's resolution to continue provided badly-needed services to women in the face of relentless protests, lawsuits, threats of violence, and assassination attempts from anti-abortion activists, most notably Operation Rescue:

“His is the only abortion clinic we’ve never been able to close,” Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said in an interview.

,,,

There seemed an endless supply of fresh accusations.

“Wichita shoppers unknowingly sprinkled with the burnt ash of fetal remains,” declared one news release, referring to the clinic’s crematorium.

“If I can’t document it, I don’t say it,” Mr. Newman of Operation Rescue said, moments before suggesting without any proof that Dr. Tiller had bought off the local district attorney, Nola T. Foulston, by giving her a baby for adoption. He referred a reporter to a Web site that vaguely asserted that Dr. Tiller “may have delivered the ultimate bribe to Nola Foulston.” A spokeswoman for Ms. Foulston declined to discuss the accusation.

Anti-abortion activists routinely portrayed Dr. Tiller’s campaign contributions as “blood money” that co-opted politicians. “He owned the attorney general’s office,” Mr. Newman said. “He owned the governor’s office. He owned the district attorney’s office.”

The article notes that Operation Rescue and Newman eventually changed tactics and began relying on an "obscure Kansas statute allowing residents to petition for grand jury investigations" and then gathered thousands of signatures to convene two grand juries against him. Both times the juries refused to indict him.

Eventually, Tiller was charged with 19 misdemeanor violations of state's late-term abortion law and was acquitted after the jury deliberated for a mere thirty minutes:

It was an enormous victory, but Dr. Tiller’s supporters feared a backlash. Anti-abortion activists who had attended court sessions were disgusted. Mr. Newman remembered one new face among the regulars in court — Scott Roeder, who told other protesters that the trial was a “sham” and had argued in years past that homicide was justifiable to stop abortions.

Roeder is the man charged with murdering Tiller, which brings us to this article in the Kansas City Star in which Roeder disputes Newman's repeated assertions that he was never a member or supporter of Operation Rescue, insisting that he was, in fact, both:

The Kansas City Star interviewed Roeder three times in recent weeks, including once at the Sedgwick County Jail.

In a phone interview Friday, Roeder said he was upset at the president of Operation Rescue, Troy Newman, who had condemned the killing and said his organization had nothing to do with Roeder.

“He said that I never was a member and I never contributed any money,” Roeder said. “Well, my gosh, I’ve got probably a thousand dollars worth of receipts, at least, from the money I’ve donated to him.”

Roeder said he wrote Newman a letter from jail.

“I told him, ‘You better get your story straight because my lawyer said it’d be good for me to show that I was supporting a pro-life organization.’”

For his part, Newman continues to insist that they have no record of Roeder making donations to his organization in their database.