profession
Abortion physician's killer gets life in prison
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 12, 2010
Scott P. Roeder, convicted of first-degree murder in the May 2009 shooting death of George R. Tiller, MD, in Wichita, Kan., has been sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole in 50 years. It was the harshest possible sentence allowed under the law.
Roeder, 52, admitted in court testimony that he shot Dr. Tiller, who performed controversial late-term abortions, and had stalked him since 1999. Roeder argued that he believed abortion is always murder, so the killing was justifiable, but Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert would not allow the jury to consider conviction for a lesser crime. Roeder's sentencing was April 1.
Dr. Tiller, an ob-gyn in Kansas, had long been a target of anti-abortion activists. His clinic, Women's Health Care Services PA, was routinely picketed and was bombed in 1986. In August 1993, Dr. Tiller was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent. The clinic has closed.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/04/12/prbf0412.htm.
