Kan. abortion doctor's killer faces life sentence

[April 20, 2010]  WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- The activist who gunned down a Kansas doctor who was one of the few in the U.S. to perform late-term abortions has never shown remorse, insisting the killing was justified to save the lives of unborn children.

Scott Roeder now faces a mandatory life sentence for the slaying of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot last May in the foyer of the Wichita church where the doctor was serving as an usher. Roeder, who admitted killing Tiller on the witness stand during his trial, is expected to testify again at Thursday's sentencing hearing and speak freely about his beliefs.

Several of Roeder's friends and fellow anti-abortion activists have said Roeder asked them to testify as character witnesses -- although it's up to the judge to decide how much, if any, such testimony he will hear.

Roeder was convicted in January of first-degree murder for the May 31 slaying of Tiller and of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two ushers who tried to stop him after the shooting.

Lee Thompson, an attorney for the Tiller family, declined to discuss any plans for statements to the court during Thursday's hearing.

While District Judge Warren Wilbert must sentence Roeder to life in prison, the judge will decide whether the 52-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man must serve 25 years or 50 years before being eligible for parole.

Prosecutors seeking the harsher sentence must show an aggravating circumstance, such as whether Roeder stalked his victim before killing him. Roeder testified in January that he had previously taken a gun into the doctor's church and had checked out the gated subdivision where Tiller lived and the clinic where he practiced.

Defense attorneys are challenging the constitutionality of the harsher sentence. Also pending is a routine motion seeking a new trial, a procedural matter filed mostly for appeal purposes.

Although he could spend the rest of his life in prison, Roeder may have gotten what he wanted all along: In the months since Tiller's death and his clinic was closed, it has been markedly more difficult to get an abortion in Kansas.

The state was left with no facility where women can have the late-term procedure. Just three clinics in the state -- all located in or near the Kansas City area -- offer limited abortion services for women up to their 21st week of pregnancy.

An early vow by one of Tiller's contemporaries to fill the gap hasn't materialized, and state lawmakers are moving to enact tough new rules to dissuade other doctors from taking Tiller's place.

But outside Kansas, abortion-rights supporters say there's been a surge in late-term abortion practices by doctors emboldened to pick up where Tiller left off.

"What he really did was murder a doctor in church, and the effect on abortion is negligible," said Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska doctor who worked part-time for Tiller and said he hasn't given up on the idea of opening a practice in Kansas where late-term abortions would be performed.

[Associated Press; By ROXANA HEGEMAN]

Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka contributed to this report.

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