WICHITA — In a trial watched closely by those on both sides of the abortion debate, Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas physician accused of performing 19 illegal late-term abortions, was found not guilty Friday.
The six-person jury, three men and three women, deliberated for less than an hour.
When the bailiff announced the first not-guilty verdict, Tiller squeezed his eyes shut for just a moment. It was the only reaction he showed.
He was led from the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy. A row of uniformed and plainclothes officers stood between Tiller and the spectators in the courtroom, many from the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.
There were no outbursts from the protesters.
Some bowed their heads. Some wept.
“Dr. Tiller and his family are just happy it’s over, with an eminently just result,” said defense attorney Dan Monnat. “This whole trial was political.”
Tiller was charged with 19 criminal misdemeanor counts of violating a Kansas law that requires a second opinion from a doctor with no legal or financial ties to any physician who terminates the pregnancies of women whose fetuses are considered “viable” — able to survive outside the womb. That generally happens around six months’ gestation.
The prosecution tried to show that Tiller’s relationship to Dr. Ann Kristen Neuhaus, who provided referrals for the 19 women in 2003, was not financially independent. Tiller had discussed with her the fee she would charge the patients to provide a second opinion.
Soon after the verdict was announced, the state’s Board of Healing Arts made public a complaint against Tiller on allegations similar to those at issue in the criminal case.
The complaint was filed in December but not released until Friday.
