Attorneys for embattled late-term abortionist George Tiller are trying their new approach in their fight to clear him of 19 charges of doing illegal late-term abortions.
They hope to challenge a law limiting the jury size in misdemeanor cases. A 1981 state law limits the size of a jury in a misdemeanor case to 6 people, whereas 12 people are required to sit on a jury in a felony case. Tiller is challenging the constitutionality of that law, according to his attorney Dan Monnat: “At the time the Kansas Constitution was enacted, that’s what the convention had in mind”.
Monnat said he thinks the legislature overstepped its bounds when it approved allowing a lower number of jurors in misdemeanor cases like Tiller’s.
Mary Kay Culp, the head of Kansans for Life, spoke with LifeNews.com about the latest action. “Dr. Tiller has paid good money, up to a million dollars in the last election, to get out of being treated like any other citizen accused of breaking the law,” she said. “The courts need to nip this in the bud and treat him like the spoiled child that he is by saying no unequivocally and as soon as possible.”
[Wichita Eagle; 31Aug07, Wichita, KS, LifeNews.com]