Scott Roeder, confessed assassin of Dr. George Tiller, is a Loser in oh so many ways.
He did Operation Rescue’s dirty work and they threw him under the bus. Then his Ebay auction was blocked by babykillers. Then he confessed to the murder, thinking he had a rock-solid defense. Now his defense — the “Necessity Defense”, as in “The murder was A Necessity because Dr. Tiller was killing Teh Beebees” — has been declared Null and Void by his own lawyer:
Scott Roeder’s lawyer said Tuesday that the defense his client had hoped for in the murder trial of a Wichita abortion provider isn’t legal.
On Monday, Roeder publicly confessed to killing George Tiller to reporters from the Kansas City Star and the Associated Press. Roeder also said he hoped to use as his defense that killing Tiller was necessary to save the lives of the unborn.
“There’s no such thing as the necessity defense,” said Steve Osburn, head of the Sedgwick County Public Defender’s Office and Roeder’s lead counsel. “This is a fictional defense made up by these people.”
The fetus fetishists making things up? That’s a first.
He’s going for the insanity defense! YES!!!
Good morrow, all!
Scott Roeder shot George Tiller to prevent George Tiller from performing any more abortions.
What if George Tiller had made up his mind, that very day, to do that very thing – give up providing abortion services, for whatever reason? That means that Scott Roeder did not prevent any future abortions by George Tiller, because there wasn’t going to be any.
Scott Roeder could have accomplished the same thing without spilling a drop of blood. He could have walked into that same church, with that same rifle, pointed it at George Tiller and said, “On your honor, sir, if you promise never to perform another abortion, I promise not to shoot you.” I’m sure George Tiller would have made that promise, on his honor, and he probably would have kept it, because he knew he was dealing with somebody who was just crazy enough to make the good doctor keep his promise. But, we’ll never know…except maybe Jasper, who might say, “Nah, Tiller would have scammed him, and kept on killing babies, ’cause liberals lie and conservatives don’t.”
Scott Roeder shot a man, in front of witnesses, in broad daylight, with malice aforethought, because carrying a loaded rifle into a church, targeting one specific person, and shooting that person dead, takes planning, and that planning means first degree. Guilty, life, done, next case please.
We’ll never know…CTZen
Apparently Georgie should have consulted someone other than Matlock before committing first degree murder. Maybe Jessica Fletcher would have been more appropriate?
Good morrow, Bleatmop!
I think you might have meant Scottie. Poor sod, nobody to beam him outa there!
Paging Perry Mason – CTZen
C.T.Zen – Of course you are right. Scottie shoulda consulted Matlock. George should have had a competent FBI protecting him from a psychopath.
Thank you for the correction.
Good morrow, Bleatmop!
No problem, I’m here all week, try the veal, and don’t forget to tip the waitress.
Hi Yo Silver! Away! – CTZen
SQ –
It’s kind of too bad this defense wasn’t allowed, I would love to see how it would play out in court.
CTZen – Someone filled this chump’s thick skull full of nonsense and made him think he could do this and get away with it, or be acquitted on the grounds that he was “saving lives”. Then helped him stalk Dr. Tiller, plan it all out, premeditate, etc., then threw him under the bus after the job was done.
Who were his accomplices? That’s something else we’ll never know (though I have my suspicions).
Bleatmop – Matlock
I think the insanity defense would work.
“Your honour, do you think my client would walk into a House of God, and shoot a doctor in front of God. He must have been possessed by the devil.”
Interestingly enough, during Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s first trial he used the defense of necessity that abortions were necessary for his patients’ life or health.
Since he faced a jury that agreed he did the right thing, this was accepted, but it wasn’t a legally valid defense.
I can’t see how it could possibly work in Roeder’s case unless he faced a jury of die-hard foetishists.
SQ – No matter how whacko his rationale for this murder might be, he has to pass a psychiatric test (or flunk it, whatever the case may be) to cop an insanity plea. I think they’ve found him fit to stand trial, but I guess he could still get on the stand and say the voices in his head told him to shoot Dr. Tiller.
RB – That is interesting, especially in this context.
But Dr. Morgentaler was saving actual lives, not potential ones, so I guess that’s why the jury accepted this line of defense.
As you say, no way would it work for Roeder, unless his jury was stacked with fetus fetishists as crazy as him. (And in Kansas, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.)