Scott Roeder, the murderer of Dr. George Tillman, was arraigned in Wichita today on one count of premeditated murder and two counts of aggravated assault. The criminal complaint is available in .pdf here. A media order was entered last week — TV coverage will be rotated among the Wichita network affiliates, still camera pool by the Wichita Eagle-Beacon. Nothing very extraordinary there at all.
The most interesting part is that the Sedgwick County DA is apparently leaving this high profile case to Asst DA Kim Parker. Parker is an experienced prosecutor: she handled the Dennis Rader case (Rader confessed to the grisly BTK killings). Good on DA Foulston for resisting the temptation to grandstand this one.
Also released lately are letters from Roeder to his son (now 22). (The link is to an Eagle-Beacon story based on the letters and interviews with Roeder’s ex-wife and son. Both approved the release of the letters. If the reporting is accurate, they reveal Roeder to be a serious nut-job.
Roeder is apparently unhappy with his fauxmer friends at Operation Rescue. Apparently they don’t know him any more. The interview with Roeder is about as convincing of his innocence as Orenthal James Simpson’s alleged fictional account of the Brown-Goldman murders. Also in the article, the head of Operation Rescue claims that they can’t find any database records of contributions from Roeder. It would be really amusing if Roeder has some canceled checks stashed somewhere.
On the say what? front are the reports that the forced-birth coalition claim to be receiving death threats. Some even say they’re wearing bullet-proof vests when they are out-and-about. Let’s just say that I have my doubts about the veracity of this. On the other hand, maybe it’s true. If so, all I can say to them is, "How does it feel folks? Got a taste of what Dr. Tiller was living through?"
The biggest difference between us and them is that we’d turn in anyone we knew was making death threats. The forced-birth crowd have egged their murderers on.
More news as it happens.
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Recommended.
Thanks BC.
Good work, BC. Recommended.
Your post has more juicy nuggets than the NY Times article posted yesterday. But that was informative too. Here it is.
Witness Tells of Doctor’s Last Seconds.
It is a report of the testimony of Dr. Tiller’s friend and fellow usher who witnessed the shooting from arm’s distance away.
I deeply sympathize for all who were there that awful day. I hope Dr. Tiller’s family is safe.
Awwwww. And I bet they’re just outraged about that, too. Probably want round-the-clock protection.
I am not in any way advocating threats or violence, but I confess to some considerable schadenfreude at this news.
But I doubt that any of them will relate their own fear to the fear they have induced in others. I’ve seen too many people who’ve had the tables turned on them who completely failed to see that whatever was equally bad when they did it to someone, as when someone did whatever to them. Jaw-dropping every time. but not uncommon.
Actually, they are, and some are asking for police protection.
It seems these people are completely lacking in empathy and any ability to understand (assuming it’s really happening and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on the point) that this is the terror they’ve inflicted on others. Not just the doctors, but the nurses and clinic staff too. And most of all, the patients.
Hey BC. Well, it could be happening (threats v. OR folks). But given that their credibility is totally shot and the fact that most wingers have an incredible persecution/I’m a victim schtick going, I say it’s their guilty conscience working over time. They just know that anybody else would do what they dream of doing and therefore, they are scared of their own version of other people being just like them. So, yeah, I guess they do need protection, like a padded room.
Thank you