Roeder Found Guilty

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.