Scott Roeder: Not Just a Killer, but a Whining Coward

Earlier this year, militant anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder was convicted of first degree murder for assassinating Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller. Mr. Roeder strode up to Dr. Tiller while the victim was working as an usher during a Sunday church service, and shot him in the head.  The killer confessed to the crime, stating that he acted because he believed "preborn children's lives were in imminent danger," and was sentenced to life behind bars without the possiblity of parole for 50 years.

Thursday, Mr. Roeder filed a habeas corpus petition for immediate release from prison, claiming that his rights had been violated repeatedly throughout the trial:

In the 24-page petition - seven of the pages handwritten - Roeder said that the judge’s imposition of a $20 million bond “along with a suggestion that I might enact ‘more’ violence if I make bond demonstrates heightened disregard for the presumption of my innocence.” He also said that after his arrest, the judge “made a public spectacle of me, forcing me to appear on television without the assistance of counsel or court clothes …”

Roeder complained that the names and addresses of his visitors and correspondents had been made public by the jail “and that some of these have been subjected to questioning by the police power as a consequence.”

In another claim, Roeder said that prosecutors had “made libelous allegations against me.” For example, he said, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston told the judge that a reasonable person would believe that he had engaged in “alleged acts of American terrorism.”

Roeder argued that he should be released because his attorneys “disparaged me in public behind my back” and deprived him of a fair trial. Roeder also complained that he wasn’t allowed to use a necessity defense, arguing that killing Tiller was justified because he was saving the lives of unborn babies.

“I would have been acquitted had counsel been allowed to pursue a necessity defense,” he said.

This hits close to home.  The fiancee of one of my closest friends was murdered by an anti-abortion activist because she happened to be a receptionist at a Planned Parenthood clinic, and I remember vividly how utterly devasted he was by that horrible act.

Whatever one may feel personally about abortion, it is legal in the United States, and killing another human being because one disagrees with that reality is wholly unjustified and completely criminal.  Scott Roeder is getting everything he deserves, and his complete lack of remorse - not to mention his missing sense of irony - is the best possible indication that he is exactly where he should be.  He is a murderous, whining coward, and he should never be free to walk the streets again.