Cold-Blooded Killer Defends a Fetus?

Scott Roeder from Wichita, Kansas, walks into a church and shoots an abortion doctor, Dr. George Tiller, in the head, killing him. His defense: protecting the unborn; or as he proffers, "Defense of Others". Defense of Others is a principle within criminal statutes that allows a person to justifiably use force upon an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justify deadly force.

Defense of Others generally allows one to use that amount of force which one sincerely and reasonably believes is necessary to help another in danger. However, Kansas's Defense of Others Statute parallels Self-Defense principles. This means that under Kansas law, even if you acted wrongfully in defending the other, your belief that force was required must have been reasonable. Reasonbleness is determined by the facts surrounding the situation.

Ex: If Bob pulled the trigger on Barney the purple dinosaur and raised the defense of another flag, Bob better have reasonably believed that Barney had his finger on the trigger of a loaded glock with the safety off, pointed directly at the head of his dancing child co-star. Death of another was imminent, therefore, using deadly force to defend another was justifiable. But in reality, Bob had no idea that on this episode of Barney and Friends, Barney was taking his clan to Scottsdale Gun Club for practice shooting, and was actually just demonstrating proper shooting form. But as long as Bob can convince the jury that his belief of imminent death upon the child co-star seemed reasonable, Bob may be able to dodge a 1st Degree Murder conviction and receive Voluntary Manslaughter(this is significantly simplified).

Scott Roeder killed Dr. George Tiller and is on trial on charges of 1st Degree Murder. Looking at Mr. Abortion Doctor Killer's (a.k.a. Scott Roeder's) defense, one would posit, that an abortion doctor in church is not a serious imminent threat justifying a shot in the head. But I don't know...maybe after the sermon this church had some interesting worship rituals, who knows. But on the facts, no serious imminent threat was present. However, Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert is going to allow the defense to present evidence of Defense of Others, i.e., that Scott had the unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed justifying deadly force against Dr. Tiller because Dr. Tiller imminently going to kill another. In quite technical terms, that's wack! There are serious issues there.

In Scott's trial, this creates an opportunity for jurors to find him guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of 1st Degree Murder. This could be the difference between 5 years in prison and a mandatory life sentence. That's huge. Not to mention the high profile abortion issue.

Under Kansas law, and in many states, 1st Degree Murder is the intentional and premeditated killing of another human being (yes dogs are excluded). Whereas, voluntary manslaughter is the intentional killing without premeditation, under circumstances of adequate provocation or other circumstances justifying deadly force. For example, a circumstance where a husband walks in on his wife "co-mingling" with the UPS man, upon which husband smashes a ceramic bedroom lamp on UPS man's head killing him instantly.

So was Scott Roeder's killing intentional and premeditated, or was it reasonably justified by provocation or some other justification?

Scott Roeder vigorously opposed Dr. Tiller's abortions for quite some time. Perhaps his subscription to "Prayer and Action News" magazine which advocates
"justifiable homicide" may say otherwise(?) Or better yet, Scott's participation in the Operation Rescue website, featuring "Tiller Watch". Hmmmm, clearly he never premeditated this one, right?

Would a reasonable person believe this was a premeditated abortion-doctor killing, or that Dr. Tiller was about to kill an innocent fetus and Scott had no choice but to take him out because he was an imminent threat to "another". Maybe there's some case law out there saying that a fetus qualifies as "another", and that attending church is an imminent threat justifying death.

The irony in all of this: Scott's get-away car was sporting a "Jesus fish".
Let's hope Kansas's judicial system comes out with the right result.

[THIS IS NOT A PERSPECTIVE ON ABORTION, BUT RATHER, A PERSPECTIVE ON THE KANSAS CRIMINAL COURTS AND THE TRIAL OF SCOTT ROEDER.]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126299947435522493.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#articleTabs%3Darticle

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1899143,00.html

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1673642.html