.jpg) George Tiller |
A Kansas judge rejected a long list of challenges to evidence in a criminal case against prominent late-term abortion specialist George Tiller of Wichita.
The ruling from District Judge Clark V. Owens brings Tiller one step closer to standing trial on 19 counts filed by former state Attorney General Paul Morrison, who resigned in a sex scandal and was replaced by Stephen Six.
Morrison had thrown out a list of counts originally assembled by former attorney general Phill Kline, replacing Kline’s accusations with his own but relying on Kline’s documentation and information.
“We continue to pray that true justice will be served on behalf of the innocent, viable babies wrongfully killed by Tiller,” said Troy Newman, chief of the pro-life Operation Rescue.
Attorneys for Tiller had asked the judge to suppress evidence against Tiller and dismiss the counts involving allegations of illegal late-term abortions. Tiller claimed Kline engaged in selective prosecution and “outrageous governmental conduct.
The judge concluded: “While Phill Kline testified that he would like for all abortions to be outlawed, his investigations made no attempts to prevent lawful abortions from being performed in the state of Kansas. His procedures have certainly been questioned by the Kansas Supreme Court, but his conduct in the investigation does not merit the sanction of the dismissal of the charges or suppression of evidence.”
Specifically regarding allegations that Kline selectively prosecuted Tiller, the judge said, “While there can certainly be suspicion that Kline’s opposition to abortions was a motivating factor in investigating Dr. Tiller and Planned Parenthood as possible violators of the mandatory reporting law, it does not rise to the level of clear and convincing evidence. Looking at the decision objectively, a prosecutor could easily make the same choice for the target of his investigation on account of the relative ease in establishing the elements of the crime.”
The judge also rejected claims of outrageous conduct, noting that some of the instances about which defense lawyers complained were tied to Kline after he had turned the prosecution over to Morrison.
Cheryl Sullenger, a spokeswoman for Operation Rescue, noted it was the second time defense protests had been turned down in the case.
WND reported last year when Tiller, whose abortion industry was featured in a profile by WND columnist Jack Cashill, challenged the state law under which he is charged.
Judge Owens then turned back a number of constitutional challenges to the post-viability abortion ban in Kansas when he concluded the law “survives all of the constitutional challenges” presented by Tiller’s attorneys.
A 1998 Kansas law requires that two doctors without financial or legal ties must agree that continuation of a pregnancy will inflict “substantial or irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function” of the mother. Pro-abortion state officials have interpreted that to include issues for the mother such as depression.
But documents revealed that throughout 2003, Tiller used a physician for his second opinion who had a financial relationship with him, Ann Kristin Neuhaus of Nortonville. That’s an apparent violation of the law, officials said.
