(Photo by Mike Hutmacher/The Wichita Eagle)
Updated: After three days of a relatively quiet trial, Randall Terry and three of his supporters showed up with signs in front of the courthouse today, as prosecutors prepared to wrap up their case for murder against Scott Roeder.
Signs reading “Tiller killed 60,000 children, Roeder’s reason, The Babies” and “Give Roeder a fair trial” greeted people arriving to the Sedgwick County Courthouse this morning.
Over the noon break, Terry tried to rally support for Roeder’s defense of voluntary manslaughter, as the trial judge poised to hearing arguments about what he will allow the defense to present tomorrow.
“This jury has a right to hear what drove Scott Roeder to such extremity,” Terry told reporters at noon.
Terry, a main figure in the Summer of Mercy at George Tiller’s Wichita clinic in 1991, has seen his influence wane in recent years. The organization he founded, Operation Rescue, has gone on without him and with a new leader. Terry even sued the current leader, Troy Newman, over the use of the name.
A leader for the Feminist Majority Foundation, who knew Tiller and supported his efforts, said Terry’s presence amplifies their concern that extremist views fuel violence.
“I am more concerned about the extremists here at this trial, who have long had a relationship with Scott Roeder and have promoted
violence against abortion doctors,” said Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
Spillar said she was encouraged that a prosecutor from the civil rights division of the Department of Justice was in Wichita to monitor the trial and hopes it will lead to federal indictments.
“We’re hoping to see charges filed beyond Scott Roeder,” Spillar said. “The fact that we continue to see abortion doctors killed, following similar patterns, tell us that something needs to be done and people should be prosecuted beyond the shooter. Until then, you can expect to more killing.”
Terry was the most vocal of the anti-abortion rights proponents who have attended the trial this week. He said today that Tiller died because he performed abortion – which are legal in the U.S.
“We must not pretend that there is no connection between Mr. Tiller’s shedding of innocent blood and Scott Roeder’s act of violence against him,” Terry said.
Terry’s statements brought heckles from Rex Morley, a Wichita area resident who was at the courthouse for a civil hearing and walked by during Terry’s speech.
Morley described himself as anti-abortion, except in the cases of rape and incest, but he said he was offended by Terry’s statements.
“I can’t believe there are people who believe the killing of a man is justified, because he was doing something he had a legal right to do,” Morley said.
The present leadership of Operation Rescue, which has not been present at the Roeder trial, denounced Terry’s visit this week.
“Sadly, Randall Terry has chosen to abandon the Christ-centered principles contained in the historic Operation Rescue Pledge of Non-violence,” the group said on its website. “By refusing to condemn the actions of Scott Roeder, Mr. Terry has completely abandoned the core principles of Operation Rescue.”
Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert told jurors to stay away from news about what happens outside the evidence they are hearing in the courtroom. He doesn’t want them distracted by what’s going on outside.
Wilbert scheduled a hearing this afternoon, in which he told jurors he will make rulings on what testimony he would allow on Thursday.
Evidence is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Thursday.
who’d shot George Tiller in both arms that year was in the prison up in Topeka for a while, and Scott had been to visit her at least twenty-five times. Sometimes the idea of killing him would be more powerful and motivating than others.