After just 37 minutes of deliberation, a jury in Kansas found Scott Roeder, the murderer of Dr. George Tiller guilty on all counts. The 51-year-old airport shuttle driver faces a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole in 25 years, though prosecutors have expressed they hope to get a “Hard 50” for him — meaning he’d not be eligible for parole unless he lived to be 101.
Though during the trial the domestic terrorist Roeder told the court he’d decided as long ago as 1993 to try and kill Tiller, it wasn’t until after months of increasing demonization by the rightwing media that Roeder finally found the courage to shoot Tiller in the head during a Sunday church service in Wichita last year.
Before his murder, Tiller, who for years had performed perfectly legal abortion procedures, had been villainized in an ongoing media campaign, led most notably by Bill O’Reilly of Fox “News.” O’Reilly, who, despite his own false claims to the contrary had described him on air, time and again, as “Tiller the Baby Killer” and repeatedly told viewers on the most popular program on cable “news” that “This guy will kill your baby for $5,000, any reason. Any reason.”
Roeder testified during the trial that he “did what I thought was needed to be done to protect the children. … If I didn’t do it, the babies were going to die the next day.”
Other related statements, for which O’Reilly has never been held accountable, include:
- “In the state of Kansas, there is a doctor, George Tiller, who will execute babies for $5,000.”
- “For $5,000, ‘Tiller the Baby Killer’ — as some call him — will perform a late-term abortion for just about any reason.”
- “Tiller has killed thousands, thousands of late-term fetuses without explanation.”
- “No question, Dr. Tiller has blood on his hands.”
- ” ‘Tiller the Baby Killer’ out in Kansas, acquitted, acquitted today of murdering babies.”
- “This guy will kill your baby for $5,000, any reason. Any reason.”
- “If we allow Dr. George Tiller and his acolytes to continue, we can no longer pass judgment on any behavior by anybody.”
- “If we allow this, America will no longer be a noble nation.”
O’Reilly also said of Tiller:
- He “destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000.”
- He’s guilty of “Nazi stuff,”
- a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida
- “This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union”
- “operating a death mill”
- “has blood on his hands”
- “executing babies about to be born”
…Among many other similar statements.
While legal abortion providers have been forced to further defend themselves against continuing terror threats such as that carried out by Roeder, O’Reilly, who arguably helped foment the rage expressed by the murder of Tiller, remains on Rupert Murdoch’s cable channel where he continues to “report” in similarly irresponsible fashion to millions of Americans each night.
VelvetRevolution.us has called on the U.S. Dept. of Justice to take the threat of domestic rightwing terrorism such as Roeder’s, and the use of public and government-subsidized broadcast media to help foment it, seriously, via its StopDomesticTerror.com campaign. Please sign on to that campaign in you haven’t already. [Disclosure: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VR.]
That bit of justice was SWIFT!
It probably only took about 5 minutes to actually convict him. After sitting on a few juries I’ve found that the first half-hour is usually taken up with the jurors getting coffee, using the lavatory, electing the foreperson, tearing paper into ballot sized pieces and reading/agreeing on the charge before the jury. There sure wasn’t much (any) debate that went on.
Good for the jury and I hope this verdict has a deterrent effect on the forced-pregnancy militants.
My belief is that there ultimate accountiblity in the Universe. One will be held accountable for one’s actions or inactions. And allowed to experience the pain of those actions or inactions…
Not hell (everlasting pain and torment); But it will be an education in empathy and compassion…
When one is divorced from human feelings…as the O’Reillys, Becks, Limbaughs and those that are influenced by them are…to feel the effects of their words, actions and cold hearted bluster…that seems to be the only learning tool left.
But hey I’m a mere human….that’s the best I can come up with.
In terms of the political theory involved, the basic question is a stark and simple one: if you cannot control your own body, what other rights can you possibly have? If your body is not yours, what does it matter if you can freely express your political and religious convictions? The principle involved is similarly simple: as long as you are not violating anyone else’s rights, your right to control your own body is absolute. Period. For the reason indicated above, the fetus is not a person in the same sense the mother is: the fetus would not exist but for the woman who carries it. The woman’s right to her own body must, in fact and in logic, take precedence over whatever rights you believe the fetus possesses, up to the time of birth.
http://powerofnarrative.blogspo...-ultimate.html
I would consider pro-lifer’s sentiments…if I saw the same people protesting the wars, shoring up schip and head start, protesting the death penalty, and being the first to adopt all unwanted children who weren’t aborted or all unwanted children…period. But, that’s not the case. They’re hypocrites and I can’t take them seriously.
Three out of every four fertilized eggs miscarry (abort) before term, most of these miscarriages happening soon after conception.
That is, The Great Abortionist In The Sky has killed around 20 billion fetuses over the last hundred years.
If only Roeder knew a little about science.
Big baby abortions are just that, large babies that are usually able to live outside the womb. Tiller the Killer was a brutal killer. I am not for violence or breaking the law, however, I find it apalling the ideas presented here concerning a woman’s body. It isn’t hers and she knows it once that baby is pushing around inside of her.
I don’t feel sorry for Hitler or any of those either. The ditches with the babies in them are paralelle to what we do here in our country sight unseen by most.
Whatever happens, I am glad he is gone. It is probably illegal to say that, isn’t it, now that freedom of speech is so limited. but I didn’t kill him and wouldn’t have killed him. Because someone did, I am not mad at O’Reilly for what he said.
Carol Brown says a woman’s body “isn’t hers and she knows it”.
Carol: are you against contraception?
I wonder what will Carol Chose if she ever carries a fetus that would jeapardize her life if carried to full term…
There is a key word in the above statement…I wonder if Carol can identify it.
Late term abortions…Whys and wherefores
Ignorant people (Scott Roeder) reacting to hysterical rants from other ignorant people Bill O’Reilly etc)…
comment to Big Dan
Sorry. I did not mean a woman’s body is not hers. That does sound ignorant, doesn’t it?
I meant a woman who is pregnant with a baby six to 9 months knows there is someone else in her body and shares it. I did not mean to say her body is not hers. And yes, I certainly believe in contraception. This isn’t contraception. My opinions are mine and didn’t come from O’Reilly.
And if I was pregnant with a child that would kill me were I to have it, I feel like I would have it anyway. I would certainly pray a lot about it before it was born.
Carol Brown
Proverbs 24:11-12 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?
For those with Christian backgrounds, here is a scripture.
Carol Brown
Carol Brown @11
Jesus said…I’ll paraphrase…
“Judge not lest ye’ be judged”
I’m sure you know that chapter and verse.
From your comment @11, can we assume you were out protesting the Afghanistan and Iraq invasion (people being led to their slaughter) ?
Were you standing up for innocent already born Iraqi and Afghan children that were killed by our hands ?
Seems you should have been one of the staunchest Peace advocates along with Cindy Sheehan. Were you ?
Seems you’re pretty selective in application for your points of view.
Did you go to the link I posted @ comment #9 ?
ironically I scrolled around the tube a couple of nights ago and O’Reilly was wrung up about a tragic suicide of a high school girl who committed the act after being harassed by bullies. He wanted the bullies who harassed her to be charged with something more serious than expulsion from school.
I don’t guess he would ever see the parallel between calling someone vicious names repeatedly on TV or calling someone vicious names on facebook, both leading to someone’s violent death.
http://www.dr-tiller.com/rites.htm
http://www.dr-tiller.com/rites.htm
Thank you for your site on the number 9 comment. Here are mine for my “comments”.
Carol Brown