Scott Roeder, killer of abortion doctor, goes back to court before resentencing

The convicted killer of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was in a Sedgwick County courtroom with his attorneys Wednesday morning, taking up motions before a resentencing hearing that will determine whether he receives a “hard 50” prison term a second time.

Scott Roeder’s original “hard 50” prison sentence was thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that juries, not judges, must be the ones to weigh evidence used to impose a harsher sentence on a defendant than the mandatory minimum prescribed by law.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert in April 2010 ordered Roeder to serve a “hard 50”— rather than 25 to life — for Tiller’s May 31, 2009, shooting inside a Wichita church. Tiller, who was nationally known for performing abortions, was serving as an usher at the time.

Roeder had been living in the Kansas City area at the time.

Roeder has argued that he shot Tiller in defense of aborted fetuses. He testified at his 2010 trial that his Christian conversion left him strongly opposed to abortion and that he decided to kill Tiller after other attempts to stop abortions failed. He was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and of two counts of aggravated assault for pointing at two other men the day of Tiller’s killing.

All of Roeder’s convictions were upheld on appeal, as well as the sentences he received for the aggravated assaults. But the case was sent back to Sedgwick County for a new sentencing hearing on the murder conviction.

A date for Roeder’s resentencing has not yet been set. But when it happens, the court will impanel a new jury to weigh evidence and testimony presented by prosecutors with the Sedgwick County district attorney’s office and Roeder’s defense attorneys.

The jurors will then decide whether Roeder must serve 50 years rather than 25 before he is first eligible for parole.

Wilbert, who presiding over Wednesday’s hearing, denied or dismissed all of the motions brought by Roeder’s attorneys, saying many were premature. Some were constitutional challenges, while others asked the court to make decisions about jury makeup and the way evidence and testimony is presented to the jury.

The attorneys will be back in court April 29 to take up additional matters and possibly set a new sentencing date. Roeder, meanwhile, will be returned to Ellsworth Correctional Facility, where he is currently serving his life sentence.

Roeder is serving his life sentence at Ellsworth Correctional Facility.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Scott Roeder, killer of abortion doctor, goes back to court before resentencing."