Abortion foe faces murder charge

Scott Roeder, 51, was shown in court via a video link from the Sedgwick County Jail. He fiddled with documents on a podium in front of him and said "OK" three times as Judge Ben Burgess read the charges and explained the court process.

Burgess ordered Roeder held without bond and said he is not allowed to communicate with Tiller's family or with two witnesses he allegedly assaulted. The judge told Roeder he would be assigned a public defender.

"And I'll obviously be hearing from one of those lawyers between now - or do you know how long it will be before I hear from one of those lawyers?" Roeder said.

Within two days, the judge answered. A preliminary hearing is set for June 16.

If convicted of murder, Roeder would face a mandatory life sentence and would not be eligible for parole for at least 25 years.

District Attorney Nola Foulston would not release any details of the crime at a news conference after the hearing, but said evidence rules out the death penalty.

Kansas law requires that special circumstances exist for a defendant to be eligible for the death penalty. Such circumstances include the killing of a law officer, of more than one person, or of a victim kidnapped for ransom or rape or killed in a murder for hire.

Roeder is accused of shooting Tiller Sunday at the doctor's Lutheran church in Wichita as he was working as an usher. Roeder also was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly threatening two people who tried to stop him.

Roeder was arrested about three hours after the shooting. His last known address is in Kansas City, Mo.

Roeder's family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with antigovernment groups and then became "very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way," his former wife, Lindsey Roeder, told the Associated Press.

"The antitax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very antiabortion," said Lindsey Roeder, who was married to Scott Roeder for 10 years but "strongly disagrees with his beliefs." They divorced in 1996 and have one son, now 22.

Roeder's brother, David, said he suffered from mental illness at various times in his life.

Someone using the name Scott Roeder posted comments about Tiller on antiabortion websites, including one that referred to the doctor as the "concentration camp Mengele of our day" - a reference to the Nazi doctor who performed ghastly medical experiments on Jews and others at Auschwitz. The posting said Tiller "needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation."

Tiller's death has focused attention on third-trimester abortions, for which there are few remaining providers. They are aging, and younger doctors appear to have little interest in offering such services.

Tiller's family said there were no plans yet to reopen his Wichita clinic, despite earlier comments from Dr. LeRoy Carhart, one of four physicians who worked at the clinic.

Funeral services for Tiller are planned for Saturday.