Justice served! Well done, Kansas jury.
Jury reaches verdict on Scott Roeder for the murder of Dr. George Tiller...
GUILTY!
NYT:
When the verdict was read inside the Sedgwick County Courthouse , Mr. Roeder, 51, had no visible reaction. Instead, he just stared coolly and straight ahead, blinking his eyes. He faces a life sentence in prison.
1st Degree murder. Details to follow:
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Jurors have reached a verdict in the trial of a man accused of killing a Kansas abortion provider. It took the jury just 37 minutes Friday to reach the verdict in confessed killer Scott Roeder's (ROH'-durs) trial.
The 51-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
His attorneys were hoping to get a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter for Roeder, but the judge ruled that the jury could not consider such a verdict.
Lets all hope this sends a strong message to all the so called "pro-lifers" who murder the living......
ABC News:
In Kansas, a murder charge can be downgraded to manslaughter if the defense can prove the suspect had an unreasonable yet honest belief that killing another person was justified.
"If I didn't do it, those babies would die the next day," Roeder testified, describing how he shot and killed Dr. George Tiller in a church vestibule.
Judge Warren Wilbert quickly squashed any notion Thursday of a lesser charge and told the jury their choices were first-degree murder or acquittal. He also ruled out any possibility of a second-degree murder conviction, noting that Roeder's actions were obviously premeditated.
Wilbert told jurors that Tiller did not pose an imminent threat to anybody when he was killed during Sunday church services in Wichita in May.
"There is no immediate danger in the back of a church," he said.
The Kansas City Star reports on what's next:
Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert set Roeder's sentencing for March 9. Roeder faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with a chance of parole after 25 years.
The prosecutors in this case deserve a lot of credit. The hypocritical terrorists who were supporting Roeder are dangerous, and prosecuting a case like this under those circumstances cannot easy.
Of course.....lessons are not easily learned by Republican terrorists:
Abortion rights supporters lauded the ruling, saying it sends a strong, unambiguous message to others who believe violence against abortion doctors is justified that such acts will be punished. Abortion opponents, meanwhile, said that Mr. Roeder — who admitted to the killing in open court but said that was the only way he could stop the deaths of babies — had not received a fair trial, and that the outcome would only encourage more violence.