Scott Roeder (AP)
A jury deliberated for just 37 minutes before finding Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller.
The guilty verdict follows Roeder's chilling testimony in which he admitted to shooting Tiller in the head while the doctor was handing out pamphlets in his Wichita church.
"There was nothing being done, and the legal process had been exhausted, and these babies were dying every day," said Roeder. "The lives of those children were in imminent danger. If someone did not stop him, the babies were going to continue to die."
Not the sort of defense you usually hear in a murder trial, but Roeder's lawyers were hoping to get him a reduced sentence because Roeder believed Tiller posed an "immediate danger" to unborn babies.
But after hearing Roeder's testimony, the judge who infuriated pro-choice groups by not ruling out the "immediate danger" defense earlier, ruled that Roeder couldn't be charged with anything other than first-degree murder. "There's no imminence of danger on a Sunday morning in the back of a church," Judge Warren Wilbert said. "In the state of Kansas, abortions are legal."
Both the defense and the prosecution agreed there could be no other verdict but guilty, and Roeder's first-degree-murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Prosecutors have said they will argue for a 50-year minimum in the sentencing phase of the trial.
Question for advocates of the death penalty:
Should Roeder be executed?
It's a question to answer without delving into particulars about law; it's just for the sake of argument. Death penalty advocates believe that killers should be killed. Often, they fume over the many people still on death row the state hasn't gotten around to executing. Or they fume over delays caused by a lengthy appeals process. In the same breath, they'll say that murderers should be given a trial immediately, and if convicted, they should be executed.
FYI: Kansas has a death penalty in effect. It's done by lethal injection. There are currently seven prisoners on Death Row, five white, two black. The state hasn't executed anyone since 1976.
If you are a supporter of the death penalty, do you think Scott Roeder should be executed? Why or why not.
Comments
Let him sit in jail for 50 years and think about what killing really means!
no. a true "pro-life" agenda demands opposition to the death penalty.
Roeder is a domestic terrorist. his pastor, church, and associates should be investigated for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
I agree with Bee Jay: 50 years. We should stop considering this death penalty option all the time - it is committing another crime.
Let Mr Roeder live, a long, long time in a small, small cell.
The question is entirely hypothetical. Roeder cannot be executed because the current death penalty law in Kansas only applies to murders in special circumstances which did not apply in Tiller's murder.
The sentence should be 35 to Life. If I were the judge, I added 5 yeare for the use of a gun and 5 years of motivation by hate.
I would set recommended release at 45 years of prison.
I can't even believe that question is an issue for you Americans (I'm Australian and people here often joke about your stupidity, but I try not to believe it).
Dust off your logical thinking skills guys:
Long-term imprisonment - fine. The guy is unsafe if he can talk about murder so unemotionally.
Roeder murders Tiller because he thinks that its the only way of stopping Tiller from allegedly killing foetuses. The court decides (rightly) that murder is not the right way to "protect" other people in this instance. I assume the reasoning behind giving him the sentence of a death penalty would be to punish him for taking one life? But the court decided Roeder wasn't justified in taking Tiller's life when he thought Tiller was taking thousands of lives.
Thus the death penalty (in addition to be unnecessary) would undermine the basis of the court's verdict.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!