Anti-Abortionist Scott Roeder in Court for sentenced reduction.
I shot US abortion doctor to protect children, Scott Roeder tells court
Judge in Kansas rules born-again Christian who killed George Tiller with .22-calibre gun must stand trial for murder
Man who killed Wichita abortion provider is resentenced
BY ROXANA HEGEMAN
The man who seven years ago ambushed and fatally shot one of the few U.S. doctors performing late-term abortions was given a more lenient sentence Wednesday of at least 25 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
At a surprise resentencing hearing, prosecutors withdrew their request that Scott Roeder serve at least 50 years before parole eligibility. Roeder also was sentenced to an additional two years for aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers as he fled.
Roeder was convicted in January 2010 of premeditated first-degree murder for the shooting death of George Tiller as he was serving as an usher in the foyer of the doctor’s church in Wichita on May 31, 2009.
Tiller’s murder was among the most notorious acts of violence since the U.S. Supreme Court established a constitutional right to abortion nationwide in 1973. It alarmed the abortion rights community and came as numerous conservative states, including Kansas, passed restrictions making it harder for women to obtain abortions.
The hearing Wednesday came just days before Roeder was set to go before a jury on Monday for what had been anticipated to be a two-week sentencing hearing.
Roeder’s original life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years was among many vacated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that juries, not judges, must decide whether to increase punishment.
Roeder, who looked much thinner than at his initial sentencing in 2010, was subdued throughout the proceeding and chose not make a courtroom statement before the judge pronounced his sentence.
--
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3
