Kansas Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Late-Term Abortion Practitioner George Tiller
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 4, 2008
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — A Kansas grand jury investigating late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller has refused to return an indictment against him despite evidence showing he may have engaged in illegal late-term abortions. After a six-month investigation, the 15-member grand jury said it failed to find enough evidence to issue an indictment.
Mary Kay Culp, the director of Kansans for Life, said she thinks the county prosecutor led members of the grand jury astray during the probe.
“The failure of the grand jury to deliver indictments today is a tragic injustice for all law-abiding Kansans,” she said.
“This grand jury would have surely indicted George Tiller had they not been misinformed. The problem isn’t the current law. The problem is the so-called enforcers of that law that have failed to do their job,” Culp added.
Operation Rescue president Troy Newman also responded to the news and said his group, which has joined KFL in trying told Tiller accountable, would continue to do so.
“We are extremely disappointed that this grand jury did not indict Tiller,” he said.
"We will not stop seeking justice for the innocent victims of Tiller’s late-term barbaric practice, and will continue to exercise every legal avenue to stop the shedding of innocent blood and bring Tiller to justice,” he added.
Pro-life advocates also accused Tiller’s attorneys have done everything in their power to prevent the grand jury from obtaining abortion records to determine whether the charges were valid.
Former state attorney general Phill Kline wrote a February editorial saying violation of law "almost always occurs behind a veil of secrecy" and that medical records are often the only way to prosecute criminals.
Kline called the claims from Tiller’s attorneys that giving the redacted abortion records to officials would compromise the privacy of women a "bogus" argument that "undermines the safety net established to protect these victims."
He said "four independent judges have found probable cause to believe that two Kansas abortion clinics committed 156 criminal acts based on just 90 redacted records."
Though the grand jury failed to issue an indictment, Tiller still faces 19 misdemeanor charges filed by the Kansas attorney general Steven Six saying he violated a section of the late-term abortion law requiring to physicians to sign off on an abortion.
The trial in that case is slated for July 28.
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