Judge says he may give Kansas abortion doctor’s killer the harshest possible sentence

Judge: Abortion doc’s killer may get harshest term

WICHITA, Kan. — The judge overseeing the trial a man convicted of murdering a prominent Kansas abortion doctor says he may mete out the harshest possible sentence.

Scott Roeder (ROH-der) has admitted he killed Dr. George Tiller and is facing a mandatory life prison term. But Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert can make him eligible for parole after 25 or 50 years.

Attorneys for the 52-year-old Roeder argued Thursday that prosecutors failed to show that the circumstances behind the killing warranted the harsher of the two sentences.

But Wilbert says evidence showed Roeder stalked Tiller before gunning him down in the back of Tiller’s Wichita church last May.

Tiller was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions.