Criminal trial is also delayed as hearings are set for November 2 in District Court
Contact: Troy Newman, President, 316-841-1700; Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor, 316-516-3034; both with Operation Rescue, info@operationrescue.org
TOPEKA, Kansas, Oct. 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- Late-term abortionist George R. Tiller has filed a petition with the Kansas Supreme Court in an effort to block a citizen-called grand jury that is scheduled to convene on Tuesday. No hearing has been scheduled.
This is Tiller's third effort to circumvent the laws of Kansas and take away the people's legal right to convene a grand jury investigation using the petition process. Federal Court Judge J. Thomas Marten rejected a similar bid by Tiller's attorneys on September 11. Then on October 1, District Court Judge Paul Buchanan ruled against Tiller in his second attempt to stop the grand jury from investigating him for committing illegal abortions over the past five years.
"This is an act of desperation by a man with something to hide, and an attempt to subvert justice," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "It would be an outrageous miscarriage of justice if the Supreme Court granted his request. We demand that the Supreme Court refrain from interfering with a legally convened grand jury and dismiss this petition post haste."
In the meantime, Tiller's trial on 19 criminal misdemeanor charges of illegal late-term abortions, which had been scheduled for October 29, has been delayed. Hearings on two motions brought by Tiller's attorneys are scheduled for November 2 in the courtroom of Judge Clark Owens. Tiller will ask that the criminal case, filed by Attorney General Paul Morrison, be dismissed, and that if it does proceed to trial, that he be allowed a jury of 12 instead of the usual jury of six allowed for misdemeanor cases.
"Tiller is all about asking for special privileges as if the laws that apply to everyone else do not apply to him," said Newman. "This arrogant attitude illustrates more than ever the need for the grand jury investigation and the criminal case to move forward. Anything less would be a gross injustice and a slap in the face to the citizens who worked through the system to convene the grand jury and the people who the laws have been enacted to protect."
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
