WICHITA. — The convicted killer of a Kansas abortion provider has little sympathy for the family of his victim, comparing them to the relatives of a hit man in a recording posted online.
In his first public comments since his trial for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, Scott Roeder also criticized those who sought to keep the issue of abortion out of the proceedings, saying it was like asserting that the trial of abolitionist John Brown was not about slavery.
“My beliefs were that the lives of unborn children were being taken by abortion,” Roeder said in a phone conversation posted Monday on YouTube. “How you can keep that out of the trial is beyond me because that was the one entire motive for the action that was taken.”
His 10-minute conversation with abortion opponent Dave Leach is the first in a series recorded last week that will be posted online with Roeder’s blessing, Leach said Tuesday.
Roeder, 51, was convicted Jan. 29 of first-degree murder for shooting Tiller in May as the doctor served as an usher at his Wichita church. He will be sentenced March 9.
Roeder told Leach that he would have to struggle to summon up any sympathy for Tiller’s widow, Jean, and his four adult children.
Leach said Roeder hoped the YouTube postings would allow him to clarify statements he made during the trial and respond to charges leveled against him.
