Supreme Court Ruling Could Allow Earlier Parole Review for Anti Abortion Terrorist Scott Roeder
A U.S. Supreme Court decision that prompted the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to drop plans to seek a hard 50 sentence against convicted wife-killer Brett Seacat could invalidate the hard 50 sentence given to Scott Roeder, who was convicted of murdering abortion doctor George Tiller.
The ruling also may force prosecutors to abandon plans to seek hard 50 sentences in some other cases, including the case of a Wichita man who was convicted last week of stomping his girlfriend to death with steel-toed boots. It could prevent the state from seeking a hard 50 for a man convicted last month of strangling a Wichita woman in 2011 while on parole for murdering a woman in Lawrence more than two decades earlier.
District Attorney Marc Bennett said the ruling, known as the Alleyne decision, could have an impact on any hard 50 case in Kansas that is on appeal, and could change the way prosecutors deal with first-degree murder cases in the future.
“Clearly it will be an issue that we will have to address,” he said.
Defense lawyer Richard Ney was more blunt in his assessment of the ruling.
“The hard 50 is dead as far as it exists in Kansas right now,” he said. “For cases that are not final, and Roeder would be one of them, I think they’re certainly in question.”
More: Supreme Court Ruling Threatens to Invalidate Kansas Hard 50 Sentences - KansasCity.com