In January, Scott Roeder was convicted of killing Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas. He has been sentenced to life in prison. He will not have the possibility for parole until 50 years have passed.
The judge in the case opted to sentence Roeder to a longer term in prison and also sentenced him for related crimes:
Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have allowed Roeder to come up for parole after 25 years but gave him the harsher sentence because he shot Tiller in church and stalked him for years before.
Roeder was also sentenced to 24 consecutive months on two counts of aggravated assault for threatening to kill two church ushers who tried to stop him as he fled Reformation Lutheran Church after the shooting.
Roeder was unrepentant during the sentencing and interrupted the judge on numerous occasions.
While Roeder’s sentence will hopefully bring some closure to the Tiller family, we are still left with the fact that there are very few doctors in the entire United States who will perform late-term abortions, which are usually obtained by women whose wanted pregnancies have gone catastrophically wrong. We can remember Dr. Tiller as a model physician who cared deeply for women and helped them live the fullest lives possible, but until the discourse in this country changes and our society supports all women’s choices about their pregnancies, we are simply left with a hollowness where a man who trusted women once stood.
