Scott Roeder files petition claiming that his rights have been violated
By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The man who killed Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller has filed a
petition complaining that his rights have been violated and asking to be
released from custody.

Scott Roeder, 52, of Kansas City, criticized the judge, the jail,
prosecutors and his lawyers in a habeas corpus petition that he filed in
Sedgwick County, Kan. A hearing is scheduled for June 4. Such a petition
requires a judge to determine whether a person has been imprisoned
lawfully and whether he should be freed.

Roeder was convicted of first-degree murder in January and sentenced
April 1 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years. That
case is under appeal.

In the 24-page petition — seven of the pages handwritten — Roeder said
that the judge’s imposition of a $20 million bond “along with a
suggestion that I might enact ‘more’ violence if I make bond
demonstrates heightened disregard for the presumption of my innocence.”
He also said that after his arrest, the judge “made a public spectacle
of me, forcing me to appear on television without the assistance of
counsel or court clothes …”

Roeder complained that the names and addresses of his visitors and
correspondents had been made public by the jail “and that some of these
have been subjected to questioning by the police power as a consequence.”

In another claim, Roeder said that prosecutors had “made libelous
allegations against me.” For example, he said, Sedgwick County District
Attorney Nola Foulston told the judge that a reasonable person would
believe that he had engaged in “alleged acts of American terrorism.”

Roeder argued that he should be released because his attorneys
“disparaged me in public behind my back” and deprived him of a fair
trial. Roeder also complained that he wasn’t allowed to use a necessity
defense, arguing that killing Tiller was justified because he was saving
the lives of unborn babies.

“I would have been acquitted had counsel been allowed to pursue a
necessity defense,” he said.

Roeder’s court-appointed attorney, Michael Brown, could not be reached
for comment. His attorneys in the murder case did not respond. Georgia
Cole, a spokeswoman for the Sedgwick County district attorney’s office,
declined to comment.

Lee Thompson, an attorney for the Tiller family, said he hadn’t seen the
petition and didn’t care to.

“I’m not going to waste my time,” he said. “It’s just a rehashing of
arguments he’s made before.”

(Maybe Sarah Palin will pray for him...)


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The Tea Party's teabaggers are just the Republican base by another name.