WICHITA, Kan. – A judge is weighing a critical legal question in the case of a man who confessed to killing one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers: Can the man claim at his trial that the slaying was justified to save the lives of unborn children?
Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man, is charged with one count of premeditated, first-degree murder in Dr. George Tiller's death and two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly threatening two ushers during the May 31 melee in the foyer of the doctor's Wichita church.
District Judge Warren Wilbert has yet to rule on a bevy of court filings that will set the course for the Jan. 11 trial, and will consider some of them in court Tuesday. But the documents offer a glimpse at the unfolding legal strategies in a case played out amid the rancorous debate over abortion.
Since the killing, Roeder has confessed to reporters that he shot Tiller, while his anti-abortion allies have urged Roeder to present the so-called "necessity defense" in hopes that an acquittal could turn the larger debate over abortion in their favor.
"I choose this action I am accused of because of the necessity defense," Roeder told The Associated Press in November. "I want to make sure that the focus is, of course, obviously on the preborn children and the necessity to defend them."
If the judge rejects that defense, Roeder and his attorneys would not be allowed to make that argument to jurors at his trial. Similar efforts to use such a strategy in cases involving abortion-related violence have generally been banned — perhaps most relevantly at the 1993 trial of an Oregon woman accused of shooting and wounding Tiller.
Roeder, who has pleaded not guilty, confessed to the shooting on Nov. 9, telling The Associated Press he has no regrets for killing Tiller and suggesting the necessity defense should be the only contested issue of his trial. Roeder declined to say when asked if he would kill another abortion provider if he were acquitted.
The so-called "necessity defense" has rarely been successfully used in abortion cases. Roeder's attorneys — while arguing that their client has a right to present his theory of defense — have so far kept their own strategy secret.
Legal experts and others close to the case have suggested his public defenders may actually be aiming at a conviction on a lesser offense such as voluntary manslaughter — defined in Kansas as "an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force."
That would be an easier argument to make to jurors than a necessity defense, which is unlikely to win, said Melanie Wilson, a University of Kansas law professor. A necessity defense, also known as the "choice of evils defense," requires proof that the defendant reacted to an immediate danger, an argument that is undermined by abortion's legality.
"The defendant has a right to a defense and so if he can put forth evidence that shows adequate facts to support such a defense, well then he should be allowed to do so," Wilson said. "I suspect that is what the big fight is going to be at the motions hearing."
A wild card is Roeder's close relationship with Iowa anti-abortion activist Dave Leach, who has been separately crafting a necessity defense for Roeder — including writing motions that could be used if Roeder were to represent himself. Leach said the goal is to encourage states to criminalize abortion again or at least bolster a defense that would allow activists to block clinic entrances without fear of arrest.
"My strong conviction is that this case presents an opportunity, through education of both the public and the courts, to end abortion," Leach said.
Prosecutors want to block such notions, citing a criminal trespass case involving an abortion clinic in which the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that allowing someone's personal beliefs to justify criminal activity would be "tantamount to sanctioning anarchy."
Roeder's two public defenders responded that Roeder's case differs because trespassing at an abortion clinic is just a potential temporary interruption of the practice of abortion, whereas Roeder succeeded in shutting down Tiller's clinic.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Roeder faces a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years. A conviction for voluntary manslaughter for someone with as little criminal history as Roeder could bring a sentence closer to five years if the judge follows state sentencing guidelines.
Roeder's public confession notwithstanding, prosecutors have overwhelming evidence against him — chiefly the eyewitnesses who identified Roeder as the shooter during a preliminary hearing in July. Legal experts say the prosecution will likely want to keep the case limited to a straightforward murder case and avoid a discussion of abortion.
"The defense would rather have it be a trial of abortion — particularly late-term abortion — and not a trial of the killing of Dr. Tiller," said Richard Levy, a law professor at the University of Kansas. "It is often a sound defense strategy to go after the victim."

COPENHAGEN – A plan to protect the world's biologically rich tropical forests was shelved early Saturday after world leaders failed to agree on a binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Delegates scrapped plans for a comprehensive climate agreement that would have included the deal to pay poor countries to protect their forests. The program is known as REDD for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.
"REDD gets punted along for another year," said Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition of Rainforest Nations, which includes many of the 40 tropical countries that would take part in the program.
"It's depressing," he said. "It means I've got to spend another year ... coming to meetings and talking about the same things."
The burning or cutting of trees for logging and to clear land for plantations or cattle ranches is blamed for about 20 percent of global emissions. That's as much carbon dioxide as all the world's cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships combined.
About 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of forests are cut down each year — an area about the size of England or New York State — and the emissions generated are comparable to those of China and the United States, according to the Eliasch Review. Deforestation for logging, cattle grazing and crops has made Indonesia and Brazil the world's third- and fourth-biggest emitters.
"The failure of the U.N. process to agree on a system to fund and regulate the protection of the world's forests means that business as usual logging and forest conversion will continue," said Stephen Leonard of the Australian Orangutan Project. "No treaty means that forest destruction will continue unabated, forest dependent peoples rights will not be protected and endangered species will continue down the path to extinction."
REDD would be financed either by wealthy nations or by a carbon-trading mechanism — a system in which each country would have an emissions ceiling, allowing those who undershoot it to sell their emissions credits to over-polluters.

TRIPOLI (AFP) –
Concern for the health of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced to life in prison for the Lockerbie bombing, grew in Tripoli on Sunday after a medical report said his cancer had spread.

"A scan has shown a worsening of the disease which has spread more than before," said the bulletin from the Tripoli Medical Centre where Megrahi, is being treated for terminal cancer.

The bulletin received by AFP was the first since Megrahi, 57, was repatriated to Libya in August following his controversial release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds

Megrahi arrived at the hospital on Saturday coughing and vomiting, the statement said.

He was also suffering from "secondary effects of the sessions of chemotherapy" that he has been undergoing, including a weight gain, high blood pressure and sugar in the blood along with muscular fatigue.

"His condition was examined on Saturday by a team of European experts who agreed on the continuation of chemotherapy sessions while also administering other medicaments to treat the disease," the hospital said in its first bulletin released since Megrahi's controversial return in August.

Last week the Scottish authorities charged with supervising the Lockerbie bomber said they had contacted him in Tripoli on Wednesday, following concerns about his whereabouts.

Under the terms of his release from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds, Megrahi cannot leave Tripoli or change his address and must keep in regular contact with East Renfrewshire Council.

They were unable to contact the Libyan on Tuesday, while The Times newspaper could not track him down at either his house or the hospital where the terminal prostate cancer sufferer has had treatment.

"We have now spoken to Mr Megrahi, who is in his house. There is no cause for alarm, he is in his house," said a spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council in western Scotland.

Megrahi is the only person convicted over the December 1988 bombing of a New York-bound Pan Am Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people.

He was freed on August 20 after doctors said he had only three months to live, and returned to a hero's welcome in Libya, which considers him "a victim and not a terrorist," angering relatives of those killed.

His release also caused tensions between Britain, the devolved Scottish government and the United States, where most of the victims were from, and sparked questions about London's growing trade relationship with Tripoli.

In October Scottish police said they were re-examining the evidence surrounding the Lockerbie bombing as they seek new suspects in connection with the attack.

Detectives are reviewing the case to establish who might have acted with Megrahi, officials have said.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AFP) –
LeBron James scored 43 points and grabbed 13 rebounds but the Cleveland Cavaliers came up short, falling 111-109 in over-time to the Memphis Grizzlies in an NBA game.

Zach Randolph scored 32 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to pace Memphis while O.J. Mayo added 28 points and Rudy Gay contributed 21 for the Grizzlies, who improved to 9-12 but could not escape the Southwest division cellar.

Mo Williams scored 20 points and Shaquille O'Neal added 16 for the Cavaliers, who fell to 15-6 but still lead the Central division by 5 1/2 games over Milwaukee.

James was 14-of-29 from the field and 11-of-12 from the free throw line for Cleveland, which had won 12 of 14 prior games.