The prosecution began with an emotional eyewitness testimony, recordings of frantic 911 calls and photos of Dr. George Tiller's body lying in a pool of blood in his church foyer. Tiller's wife, Jeanne, placed her head in her hands and covered her eyes as a police officer testified about the photographs.

DNA evidence linking Tiller to confessed killer Scott Roeder, forensic analyses of bullet casings and video of Roeder at local hotels are expected to follow in prosecutors' case -- but no mention of abortion, at least for as long as they can avoid it.

The absence of what lawyers are calling the “a-word” from the transcript could change when Roeder's defense team has a chance to try to argue that he believed the killing was justified to save unborn children.

Prosecutors hope to convince jurors to return a premeditated, first-degree murder verdict, rather than a lesser voluntary manslaughter conviction expected to be sought by the defense.

In Kansas, voluntary manslaughter is defined as "an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force."

At one point Friday, District Judge Warren Wilbert stopped defense attorney Mark Rudy from using the word abortion when cross-examining a witness who had not first used it himself.

If the witness brings it up "that's fair game, and you can explore it," Wilbert said.

Paul Ryding testified he had an "awkward conversation" with Roeder when Roeder came to church services six months before the shooting. Ryding said he had a feeling Roeder had "an agenda," without explaining what he thought that might be.

Ryding consistently avoided the word abortion when pressed, leaving defense attorney Mark Rudy so plainly frustrated that he asked Ryding whether he had previously discussed his testimony with any officials other than detectives.

Ryding responded that he had not, but later acknowledged to District Attorney Nola Foulston, while on the stand, that he had talked to prosecutors to prepare his testimony.

Judge Wilbert has repeatedly stated the trial will not be turned into a battle over abortion. However, he certainly galvanized both sides of the debate when he refused to bar the defense from trying for a conviction on the lesser charge by arguing Roeder believed Tiller's killing would save unborn children.

The judge has said he will rule at the time the defense presents its evidence about how much jurors will be allowed to hear, telling attorneys he will limit it to Roeder's beliefs at the time of the killing.

51 year old Scott Roeder faces a life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder. If he is  convicted of voluntary manslaughter, with such little criminal history, the sentence would be closer to five years.

Whether Scott Roeder is convicted of voluntary manslaughter or first-degree murder, what he did is completely wrong and not in-step with Christian pro-lifers across the county. Pro-lifers protest abortion because they believe it is killing a human being and therefore wrong. One cannot be pro-life and voluntarily take a life, no matter if that life is that an unborn child or that of an abortion doctor.  

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