Scott Roeder, who was convicted of killing Dr. George Tiller in January and has since been sentenced to life in prison, has filed a habeas corpus petition. In it, he says the judge's sentence and $20 million bond shows a heightened disregard for the presumption of innocence and says prosecutors made libelous charges against him.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of Roeder's claims. Before the murder, the conservative media certainly stoked his actions. It was Bill O'Reilly who called Tiller a "baby killer." During the trial, his attorneys wanted to argue for a voluntary manslaughter conviction, which would have allowed a lesser sentence if the jury found Roeder acted on an unreasonable but honest belief. Roeder was allowed to say on the stand that he needed to stop Tiller from performing abortions. That certainly could have reinforced the notion for some that Roeder's actions were justified, even valiant. It's impossible to consider the shooting of Tiller outside of the context of a culture that calls into question a legal medical procedure during the murder trial over the killing of an innocent doctor.
When that's true, it becomes possible for Roeder to question anyone who doesn't consider the Tiller murder through his particular viewpoint. As Julie Burkhart a former co-worker and political adviser of Tiller's said, the trial and conviction of Roeder does nothing to change the conditions that helped him murder Tiller in the first place.
-- Monica Potts
