Following the conviction last week of Scott Roeder for the murder of Kansas doctor George Tiller, another anti-abortion activist who is in prison for shooting Tiller in the early 90s says the judge in Roeder’s case was pressured by the media and the abortion rights movement to disallow his only defense.

Des Moines anti-abortion activist Dave Leach appears in one of a series of Web videos arguing that killing doctors who perform abortions is justified, and that judges should allow the theory to be argued in court.

Des Moines anti-abortion activist Dave Leach appears in one of a series of Web videos arguing that killing doctors who perform abortions is justified, and that judges should allow the theory to be argued in court.

Shelley Shannon, who is serving time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca, Minn., for shooting and wounding Tiller outside his clinic in 1993, sent Des Moines anti-abortion activist Dave Leach an e-mail to give to the press Tuesday. In it, she decried the judge’s decision to instruct the jury that it would not be allowed to to consider any lesser charges than first-degree murder.

Roeder shot and killed Tiller last May. He openly admitted to the crime in order to use the necessity defense, which says it is permissible to commit a crime if it stops a greater harm.

Leach drafted the necessity defense legal brief for Roeder, who was planning to argue he killed Tiller to stop him from performing abortions. Legal experts said because abortion is legal, the defense was not possible, and if allowed, would open the door to violence against abortion providers. Ultimately, the judge agreed.

“The claim was made that if Scott had been allowed to use the true defense of his actions, it would lead to more abortionists being killed,” Shannon said in her e-mail. “I believe Scott’s judge was influenced by that and other media/pro-abort pressure to change his mind and not allow Scott his defense. Abortionists are killed because they are serial murderers of innocent children who must be stopped, and they will continue to be stopped, even though Scott didn’t get a fair trial. May God bless Scott for his faithfulness and brave actions and stand.”

Leach, who publishes a newsletter that advocates the doctrine of justifiable homicide in the case of abortion doctors, said the defense should have been allowed since “Scott Roeder had no quarrel with George Tiller other than his commission of infanticide.”

“God indicated what he thought the trial was about by arranging for it to begin on the 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade,” Leach said. “God is relevant, and what he commands is legal, though the whole world opines otherwise.”

Before the trial began, Leach said it was disingenuous to argue that using the necessity defense in this case would lead to more violence. The fear of violence from anti-abortion activists would end abortion, thus end the need for violence to stop them, Leach argued.

“Let’s get real here: the 60,000 notches on Tiller’s scalpel of whom he boasted on his Web site constitute ‘violence.’ Anything that reduces abortion reduces ‘violence,’” he said. “But my vision is to reduce all the violence: against babies and against abortionists. Abortionists will be unemployed, but safe”