Suspect says killing doctor justifiable
By Associated Press Writer ROXANA HEGEMAN (The Associated Press)
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| FILE- This undated booking photo originally released Tuesday, June 2, 2009 by the Sedgwick County Jail shows Scott Roeder, who is suspected in the shooting death of abortion provider George Tiller. The man charged with killing a prominent Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions has been advocating through mailings from his jail cell that such killings are justifiable and communicating with individuals on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, weeks after suggesting others might be planning similar attacks. (AP Photo/Sedgwick County Jail) ( (HO)) |
WICHITA, Kan. – A man charged with shooting a prominent doctor who performed late-term abortions has been advocating through mailings from his jail cell that such killings are justifiable and communicating with individuals on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, weeks after suggesting others might be planning similar attacks.
Scott Roeder, 51, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the May 31 death of Dr. George Tiller – an attack that reignited the national debate over late-term abortion and gave Roeder icon status among extremists in the anti-abortion movement.
From his cell in Sedgwick County Jail, Roeder has been sending anti-abortion pamphlets that laud Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering an abortion provider in 1994, as an “American hero,” and include examples of Hill’s writings about how the killing of abortion providers is justifiable.
Hill was executed in 2003 for killing Dr. John Bayard Britton and his bodyguard outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.
Abortion has been legal in the U.S. for more than 30 years but remains a contentious issue in the country.
Roeder also has been corresponding with the Rev. Donald Spitz – whose Army of God group’s Web site celebrates Hill and who says he sent Roeder seven of the pamphlets at Roeder’s request.
No one has accused Roeder of breaking any laws because of his jailhouse correspondence. But local and federal law enforcement agencies took seriously a threat Roeder made during a June 7 interview with The Associated Press that there are “many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.” A judge raised Roeder’s bond to $20 million, citing his comment.
