Killer of Kansas abortion doctor sentenced to life
By The Associated Press, cbc.ca,
Updated: April 1, 2010 8:13 PM
A man convicted of murdering an abortion doctor in Kansas was sentenced in Wichita Thursday to life in prison and won't be eligible for parole for 50 years.
Scott Roeder, 52, received a mandatory life prison term for shooting Dr. George Tiller to death in Tiller's Wichita church on May 31, 2009. Tiller was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions.
Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made Roeder eligible for parole after 25 years but gave him the maximum sentence possible because he said the evidence showed Roeder stalked Tiller before killing him.
A jury found Roeder guilty of first-degre murder in January.
During his trial, Roeder testified he had previously taken a gun into Tiller's church and had checked out the gated subdivision where the doctor lived and the clinic where he practiced.
Wilbert also sentenced Roeder to serve an additional year in prison on each of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers in the melee. That means — allowing for possible time off those sentences for good behavior — Roeder won't be eligible for parole for 51 years and eight months.
During his trial, Roeder testified that he killed Tiller to save unborn children. In a statement he read in court Thursday, Roeder blamed Tiller's death primarily on the state for not outlawing abortion.
"I stopped [Tiller] so he could not dismember another innocent baby," he read. "Wichita is a far safer place for unborn babies without George Tiller."
Security was tight for the sentencing. Police officers had dogs trained in detecting explosives sniffing reporters' equipment before the hearing began.
Four sheriff's deputies for Sedgwick County, which encompasses Wichita, were on duty outside the courtroom Thursday, along with several agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
