Court upholds punishment of anti-abortion killer Scott Roeder for YouTube threat

The Kansas Court of Appeals has ruled that prison officials acted properly when they punished Scott Roeder – the murderer of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller – over a YouTube video deemed to be a threat to the woman who reopened Tiller’s clinic.

A three-judge appellate panel said officials at Lansing Correctional Facility didn’t violate Roeder’s free-speech rights by imposing a punishment of 45 days in solitary confinement, 60 days of restricted privileges and a $20 fine.

Roeder received that punishment for an April 1, 2013, interview with David Leach, a music store owner and anti-abortion activist from Des Moines.

By upholding the prison’s action, the court ruled that officials were correct in asserting that Roeder had tried to threaten and intimidate Julie Burkhart, a former Tiller employee who reopened Tiller’s former clinic, now known as South Wind Women’s Center, four years after the doctor’s death.

“Here, Roeder knew he was speaking through Leach to persons who shared his penchant for ending abortions through criminal acts against abortion providers,” the court wrote.

Burkhart could not be reached for comment.

Roeder is serving a life sentence for shooting Tiller to death on May 31, 2009, while Tiller was serving as an usher at a Sunday morning service at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita.

At the time of the 2013 Roeder interview, Burkhart was close to reopening the former Tiller clinic. Leach operated a newsletter and website called “Prayer & Action News” and was host of a public-access TV show called “The Uncle Ed Show.”

“It is a little bit death-defying, you know, for someone to walk back in there,” Roeder told Leach during the interview. “You know, I think that woman’s name is Julie Burkhart, but I call her Julie Darkheart, and to walk back in there and reopen a clinic, a murder mill where a man was stopped, you know it’s almost like putting a target on your back saying ‘Well, let’s see if you can shoot me.’”

“I have to go back to what Mike, Pastor Mike Bray said, you know, if 100 abortionists were shot they’d probably go out of business,” Roeder continued. “So, I think eight have been shot, so we got 92 to go and maybe she’ll be, maybe she’ll be No. 9.”

Bray is an anti-abortion minister from Ohio who served 46 months in prison in connection with abortion clinic bombings in the mid 1980s.

The appeals panel specifically rejected Roeder’s contention that his words were protected speech, like those of the late Rev. Fred Phelps, the anti-gay pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka.

Roeder’s case cited a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that found Phelps not guilty of intimidation for displaying signs calling a witness in a court case against him a “Fat, Ugly, Sodomite” and another saying “Gays are Worthy of Death.”

“Phelps, for all his faults, was no murderer,” the court wrote. “There was no indication in the Phelps case that Phelps was linked to organizations that endorsed violence and whose members committed crimes of violence against their targets. The same cannot be said for Roeder.”

Leach is an advocate for the legal theory that Roeder attempted to use at his trial: that killing abortion providers is justifiable to save the lives of unborn babies.

During the YouTube interview, Leach read to Roeder a column he’d written that characterized the reopening of the clinic as “a gauntlet thrown down by someone who wants a fight.”

“Of course, I don’t know if anyone will pick up the gauntlet,” Leach continued. “I didn’t know Scott would act before he did.”

Roeder interjected his agreement with Leach throughout the reading of the column and at the end, said “That’s great Dave. That’s a really good piece.”

The judges wrote that Roeder and Leach had been friends for more than 20 years through their anti-abortion activism and that Roeder understood his comments were being recorded and would be posted on the Internet.

“He could reasonably anticipate that his remarks would be circulated among like-minded persons,” the court wrote. “A violation of K.A.R. 44-12-306 (the prison regulation prohibiting intimidation and threats) does not require a showing of the speaker’s ability to carry out the threat.”

Since the case arose, Roeder has been transferred from the Lansing prison near Leavenworth to the Ellsworth Correctional Facility 35 miles west of Salina.

Prison records show that since 2011, Roeder has been disciplined 22 times by prison officials for a variety of offenses including: possession of dangerous contraband, unauthorized dealing or trade, misuse of medicine, disobeying orders, disrespecting officers, unauthorized presence in the restroom area, misconduct in the dining area and a bodily waste violation.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Court upholds punishment of anti-abortion killer Scott Roeder for YouTube threat."