Just prior to Tiller’s murder he was found not guilty of criminal charges of bypassing the Kansas law about the need for an independent second opinion from a Kansas doctor prior to performing late term abortions. His defense was that because he was referred to the other doctor by the executive director of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, that it was tacit approval to bypass the law about financial independence. The jury bought it and Tiller walked. That was 8 weeks before his murder. Operation Rescue people attending the court proceedings. I’m guessing after the case failed some of them plotted their own version of “justice”. I doubt the gunman acted completely alone.

Tiller was charged with 19 criminal misdemeanor counts. Kansas law requires that a physician get a second opinion from a doctor with whom he or she has no legal or financial ties before terminating a pregnancy of longer than 22 weeks when the fetus is considered “viable” (able to survive outside the womb)…

The prosecution tried to show that Tiller’s relationship to Neuhaus, who provided referrals in 2003 for the 19 women whose late-term abortions were the basis of the criminal charges, was not financially independent.

Disney said that Neuhaus, a witness for the state who received a grant of immunity to testify, essentially functioned as Tiller’s employee. She saw his patients at his office, and on his schedule. Also, in 2003, Tiller’s patients provided her with her only income.

And, in what Disney described as “the smoking gun,” Tiller’s own day planner reflected that in 1999, he had discussed on the phone the rate that Neuhaus would charge his patients for a consultation (Tiller had written “$200-$250”).