Sedgwick County, Kan., District Judge Warren Wilbert, who is presiding over the trial of the man accused of fatally shooting abortion provider George Tiller, sought out the endorsement of an antiabortion-rights political action committee in a 2008 election, the AP/Washington Post reports. Wilbert drew criticism from abortion-rights groups last week after he decided to allow the defendant, Scott Roeder, to use a voluntary manslaughter defense and argue that he believed he was justified in killing Tiller to protect unborn children. Legal experts have generally backed that decision as a proper way of protecting Roeder's rights. Wilbert has insisted that he will not allow the trial to become a referendum on abortion and said that he intends to try the case as a "criminal, first-degree murder trial."

Wilbert was endorsed by Kansans for Life's PAC in the 2008 election, though the group did not contribute directly to his committee, according to the AP/Post. Wilbert paid the organization $75 in September 2008 to be included in an advertisement in its quarterly newsletter that read, "The Kansans for Life PAC urges you to vote for, work for and pray for the following pro-life candidates." In an election guide in the Wichita Eagle, Wilbert described himself as a member at Wichita's St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, where he has served as a lay minister and member of the school board.

According to the AP/Post, Wilbert "is a rather ho-hum figure on the bench," and the Roeder trial "is easily the biggest case to come before him." There are no known instances of him injecting his religious beliefs into a case, the AP/Post reports. Previously, Wilbert dismissed a public records suit from a leader of antiabortion group Operation Rescue that sought 911 tapes of ambulance trips from Tiller's clinic. In June 2008, he received a campaign donation from one of Tiller's lawyers (Hegeman/Hanna, AP/Washington Post, 1/15).


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