Faculty in the News
In the News
Justifiable homicide defense eyed in Roeder's case
Publication date: Aug. 29, 2009
Source: The Associated Press
Author: Roxana Hegeman
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An article by the Associated Press on the possibility that Scott Roeder, who is accused of killing Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, will attempt a justifiable homicide defense, quoted Richard Levy, the J.B. Smith Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law.
The Associated Press wrote:
Richard Levy, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said such defenses can work, but not necessarily in the context of abortion. The law requires that the threat be imminent, the force reasonable in response and the activity involved unlawful.
Any claim that killing an abortion provider is justifiable likely would fail, he said.
"In particular in the circumstances of the murder of Dr. Tiller there is an imminence problem, there is no imminent threat and, more fundamentally, the activities he was engaged in were legal," Levy said.
...
"There might be some hope that there would be jury nullification -- the jury would vote to acquit -- if there were right-to-life advocates within the jury who accepted the argument that an unborn child is a human being and that abortion is murder and therefore the murder of a physician who performs abortion is also justifiable," Levy said.