Print edition: 
Attacking statements made by the Sedgwick County district attorney and stories in The Wichita Eagle, public defenders for Scott Roeder this week asked for his first-degree murder trial to be held elsewhere.
Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert set Dec. 22 to hear the motion to change venue, which cites controversy surrounding the killing of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.
"The death of George Tiller represented the confluence of controversial issues deeply ingrained into the mindset of multiple generations of Wichita residents," public defender Mark Rudy wrote in the motion.
Tiller was one of the few doctors in the nation who performed late-term abortions. He was shot May 31 while serving as an usher in the lobby of the Wichita church he attended.
Roeder was arrested later that day near Kansas City, where he lived.
"Individuals who claimed to know the defendant were quoted with inflammatory statements damning the defendant," Rudy wrote.
Rudy cited stories published by The Eagle and other news outlets as contributing information that won't be allowed at trial, including Roeder confessing to Tiller's killing in a phone call to reporters.
That's one piece of information the jury isn't likely to hear, Rudy wrote, because "for tactical reasons, the State will not be seeking the admission of much of the material, including, his 'confession.' "
Rudy also cited a comment made by District Attorney Nola Foulston in a June 10 phone call between the parties and Wilbert, where the district attorney said a reasonable person would believe the suspect has engaged in "alleged acts of American terrorism."
That comment, reported in news accounts, tried to "link the defendant and his actions to the most despised American enemy in a post 9/11 nation," Rudy wrote.
Such comments make picking an impartial jury impossible in Sedgwick County, Rudy argued.
"After potential jurors have been subject to such vast pretrial publicity, it becomes a legal fiction to assume that jurors will preserve the presumption that a defendant in innocent," Rudy wrote in the motion.
Foulston's office said they would respond to the arguments in court.
There are two pre-trial hearings set next month. The next hearing is Dec. 9.
Rudy and Steve Osburn will seek in that hearing to keep potential jurors from being dismissed if they favor prohibiting abortion rights.
There has not been a change of venue granted in Sedgwick County in at least 40 years.
Trial is set to begin Jan. 11.
