Name | George Tiller |
---|---|
Birth name | George Richard Tiller |
Birth date | August 08, 1941 |
Birth place | Wichita, Kansas, US |
Death date | May 31, 2009 |
Death place | Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
Death cause | Gunshot wound |
Profession | Family medicine |
Specialism | Late-term abortion |
Known for | Pro-choice advocacy |
Education | University of Kansas (zoology, 1963)University of Kansas School of Medicine (1967)Internship, United States Navy |
Work institutions | Owner-operator of Women's Health Care – Wichita, Kansas (1975–2009) |
Relations | Jeanne Elizabeth (Guenther) Tiller, widowDean Jackson "Jack" Tiller, MD, father (1916–1970) }} |
Pro-life group Operation Rescue kept a daily vigil outside Tiller's clinic for many years: first the national group, then later a branch that moved from California to Kansas specifically to focus on Tiller. On August 19, 1993, outside of the Wichita clinic, Tiller was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon, who received an 11-year prison sentence for the crime of attempted murder. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was shot through the eye and killed, by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, as Tiller served as an usher during the Sunday morning service at his church in Wichita. Jurors deliberated 40 minutes before convicting Roeder of murder on January 29, 2010.
At her trial in state court, Shelley Shannon testified that there was nothing wrong with trying to kill Tiller. The jury convicted Shannon of attempted murder, and she was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The following year, however, Shannon was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison on charges of arson, interference with commerce by force and interstate travel in aid of racketeering in connection to her participation in several fires and acid attacks on abortion clinics.
On November 3, 2006, O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he had an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that Tiller performed late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in pregnant woman. O'Reilly also interviewed a woman who allegedly got pregnant when she was 13 years old and went to Tiller for her abortion.
The case became a cause célèbre for both supporters and opponents of abortion. Columnist Jack Cashill compared the trial to the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, while New York University Professor Jacob Appel described Tiller as "a genuine hero who ranks alongside Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. in the pantheon of defenders of human liberty."
On March 27, 2009, the jury found Tiller not guilty on all charges. However, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts continued to investigate charges of ethical violations that mirrored the prosecutors' criminal allegations.
Stephen Maxwell, one of top assistants in both the Kansas attorney general's office and later the Johnson County District Attorney's office, was later accused of mishandling the case. The complaints against him include: allowing his underling to commit perjury, copying patients' records and failing to report their location to the court, and failure to report a court opinion that didn't support contention for a subpoena.
Tiller's killing was largely condemned by groups and individuals on both sides of the abortion issue. US President Barack Obama said he was "shocked and outraged" by the murder. David N. O'Steen, director of the National Right to Life Committee, said the group "unequivocally condemns any such acts of violence regardless of motivation." Some others who spoke publicly were more confrontational. Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry described Tiller as a mass murderer and said of other abortion providers, "We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches," and Southern Baptist minister and radio host Wiley Drake said, "I am glad that he is dead."
After the shooting, Tiller's colleague, Leroy Carhart of Nebraska, stated that Tiller's clinic, Women's Health Care Services, would reopen after being closed for one week to mourn his death. The following week, Tiller's family announced that the clinic would be closed permanently.
In October 2010, it was reported that a federal grand jury is investigating whether Tiller's murder was connected to a broader case involving radical anti-abortion activists, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the case.
Category:1941 births Category:2009 deaths Category:American abortion providers Category:American Lutherans Category:American physicians Category:American shooting survivors Category:American terrorism victims Category:Assassinated American people Category:Deaths by firearm in Kansas Category:Murdered doctors Category:People from Wichita, Kansas Category:People murdered in Kansas Category:United States Navy officers Category:University of Kansas alumni Category:Victims of religiously motivated violence in the United States
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