kept on dying , '' he said . `` Scott formed a belief that he had to stop George Tiller from killing more babies . '' He admitted that Roeder killed Tiller but said only the jurors can decide if Roeder `` murdered '' Tiller . He said he was not asking jurors `` to check your common sense at the door '' and urged them to `` represent our little part of the nation well . '' `` No defendant should ever be convicted based on his convictions , '' Rudy said . Roeder testified Thursday that he shot and killed Tiller and did not regret it . `` There was nothing being done , and the legal process had been exhausted , and these babies were dying every day , '' Roeder said . `` I felt that if someone did not do something , he was going to continue . '' Tiller ran a women 's clinic at which he performed abortions . Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert ruled after the end of testimony Thursday that the jury could not consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter against Roeder as the defense wanted . In making
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Jurors started to deliberate Friday after prosecutors and defense attorneys made closing arguments in the murder trial of an anti-abortion activist charged with killing a doctor who performed late-term abortion procedures . Scott Roeder is charged with murder in the death of Dr. George Tiller , who was shot to death May 31 in his church in Wichita , Kansas . Prosecutor Ann Swegle urged jurors to convict Roeder , reminding the jury of the defendant 's testimony Thursday . `` His testimony was delivered very matter-of-factly , but its contents were chillingly horrific , '' she said . `` He carried out a planned assassination , and there can be no other verdict in this case ... other than guilty . '' Kim T. Park , chief deputy district attorney , told the jurors that Roeder 's actions were unjustified and cowardly . `` Scott Roeder is not justified , '' she said . `` He is only and simply guilty of the crimes he is charged with . '' Mark Rudy , a defense attorney for Roeder , told jurors that Roeder believed he had to act . `` Scott thought that the babies