Shelley Shannon, who is serving time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca, Minn., for opening fire on Tiller in outside his clinic in 1993, sent fellow anti-abortion activist Dave Leach an email to give to the press on Wednesday.

“He needed to be killed for the sake of justice,” she wrote, before citing verses from the Bible, according to the Associated Press. “Whatever happens in the Kansas courtroom, justice was done on May 31, AD 2009.”

Leach is an Iowa anti-abortion activist who has drafted a defense of Tiller’s murder (see coverage of Leach at our sister site, Iowa Independent. ):

We proclaim that whatever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child. We assert that if Scott Roeder did in fact kill George Tiller, his use of lethal force was justifiable provided it was carried out for the purpose of defending the lives of unborn children. Therefore, he ought to be acquitted of the charges against him.

The trial, to be held in Wichita, Kans., has just finished jury selection.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a lead sponsor, along with Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., of a bill in the Senate condemning Tiller’s murder and use of violence for political ends.

The bill says that “acts of violence should never be used to prevent women from receiving reproductive health care.” The presence of those final three words has spurned anti-abortion forces to reject it saying that to vote for the bill is to “glorify” abortion.

And on Thursday, an anonymous Republican senator moved to use the rarely seen “secret hold,” preventing it from coming to a vote.

“What an encouragement to the pro-life community that while some Senators may vote in favor of abortion, they stand strongly against any effort to glorify it,” said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in a statement. “Like us, they realize that just as violence cannot be tolerated, neither can any effort to exalt those who practice it against the unborn.”

“As a former prosecutor I have seen how acts of violence can tear apart communities,” Klobuchar said of the bill. “No matter how heated the debate or how great our differences, violence is never the answer.”

On the anonymous hold, she said, “Supporting a bipartisan bill that denounces the use of violence is basic common sense and we need to pass this without further delay.”

In a joint statement, Klobuchar, Boxer and Sheehan said they will not compromise on the wording saying, “condemning violence against women’s health care providers and agreeing not to use violence as a means of resolving differences are not objectionable viewpoints.”

The U.S. House unanimously passed a watered-down version on June 9 which condemned the murder of Tiller but also a half-dozen other murders that occurred in places of worship. It did not mention Tiller’s profession, the reason he was murdered or the terms “abortion” or “reproductive rights.”

Including Sens. Klobuchar, Boxer and Sheehan, the Senate version has 43 cosponsors.

After the murder of Dr. George Tiller nearly two weeks ago and yesterday’s shootings at the Holocaust Museum by a man with white supremacist ties, some civil rights organizations — including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League — say that a Homeland Security report on rightwing extremism was correct in its focus.

But have Minnesota lawmakers changed their stance on the then-controversial report?

Here are reactions from key legislators at the time of the report’s release. They have not come out with any statements on the topic since yesterday’s shootings.

Rep. Michele Bachmann:

“The Homeland Security secretary has redefined pro-life, gun-owning veterans, who like smaller government, and who believe America should secure our borders against invasion from illegal aliens, are labeled the domestic right-wing extremists.”

Rep. John Kline:

“Our country is indeed at risk from those who reject the American way of life and our ideals. Sadly, a report recently released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suggests we are in danger from those that believe in issues such as pro-life legislation and limited government and should focus preventative efforts accordingly.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty:

There is a — kind of a media perspective that, if you’re conservative, you’re somehow, you know, deranged, or you’re somehow deficient, that, if you were a rational, well-thought-of, intelligent person, that you — you couldn’t be a conservative.

So, that’s embedded, I think, as a bias in our media culture more broadly. And it’s insidious, and it’s unfair, and I think they should be called on it.

And I — I heard your report earlier that Secretary Napolitano at least partially apologized. They should fully apologize.”

The Minnesota Independent has sought comment from all three legislators; we’ll print whatever replies we get.

As details emerge, authorities say Roeder, who was convicted in a bombing plot in 1997, was seen attempting to vandalize Tiller’s clinic in the days leading up to his murder.

Rowley, an FBI agent in Minneapolis who documented FBI failures leading up to 9/11,  said the Roeder case “should have been jumped on much more aggressively.”

“The bombing in the background, even if it was years before, kind of ratchets it up,” said Rowley. That conviction, she said, “adds quite a bit to probable cause, and adds to the specificity of the threat.”

The candlelight vigil was silent, and there were no signs or speeches. The participants were flanked by a number of Minneapolis Park police due to concerns that anti-abortion protesters might disrupt the event.

Linnea House, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota, said, “On a personal note, the candlelight vigil meant a lot to me, as we remembered Dr. George Tiller as caring, compassionate and dedicated physician. The half hour silence allowed each of us to reflect on what his service meant to us, and how each of us could commit to continuing his vision to ‘trust women.’”

While the candlelight vigils have become an important way for the community to remember the people slain by pro-life extremists, some say they are not enough.

“It is good and necessary that people gather together at a candlelight vigil to honor the memory of Dr. George Tiller, murdered in cold blood… But I myself am done with candlelight vigils,” said Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “I have participated in too many of them, from 1993 with the murder of Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola through the seven doctors, patient escorts and staff murdered over the horrifying five-year period thereafter.”

Feldt says what’s needed is strong statements from President Obama and members Congress condemning not only the murder but also the intimidation of women seeking reproductive services.

The vigil Tuesday night will not be political. “There will be no speaking program, no bullhorns, no chanting and no political rhetoric,” said the Minnesota Pro-choice Coalition in a press release. “We just want to gather to silently reflect on one man’s life and contribution to the pro-choice movement, and to mourn among other pro-choice supporters.”

PPMNS has accepted the help of the U.S. Marshals. The group provides reproductive health services in Minnesota and the Dakotas. It is the only provider of abortion services in South Dakota.

“In the wake of the tragic murder of Dr. George Tiller, PPMNS has accepted an offer to supplement our present security with support from the U.S. Marshals Service,” Sarah Stoesz, president of PPMNS told the Washington Post. “It is critically important that we ensure the safety of our doctors, staff and patients.”

“I’m profoundly sad and I’m furious and I think the American people need to understand that we have a fascist movement in this country,” Dr. Warren Hern of Boulder said Sunday. “We don’t have to invade Iraq to find terrorists. They’re right here killing abortion doctors.”

“Every doctor that does abortions has been under an assassination threat for decades,” Hern said. “The anti-abortion movement message is, ‘Do what we tell you to do or we will kill you,’ and they do. This is a fascist movement.”

While investigators haven’t released information about the suspect or motive, Tiller had been a target of anti-abortion activists for more than a decade. He was shot in both arms by Rachelle Shannon in 1993. His clinic was bombed in 1986, and was vandalized earlier this month causing several thousand dollars in damage.

If his murder was the result of anti-abortion ideology, Tiller’s would be the eighth death in the last 20 years. In addition, there have been 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 175 incidents of arson, 96 attempted bombings or arson, 390 invasions, 1,400 cases of vandalism, 1,993 cases of trespassing, 100 butyric acid attacks, 659 anthrax threats, 179 cases of assault and battery, 406 death threats, four kidnappings, 151 burglaries, and 525 cases of stalking directed at abortion clinics, doctors and patients according to the National Abortion Federation.

Those numbers include Matthew Derosia’s attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul earlier this year.

Anti-abortion activists quickly condemned the murder.

“We cannot kill people in the name of pro-life.” said Bryan Kemper, president of Stand True. “Answering the violence of abortion with more violence will not serve the babies or help the pro-life movement in any way.”

Operation Rescue, a group that had launched a national protest against Tiller in 1991, wrote in a release: “Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”

But Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, was less apologetic. “George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God,” said Terry. “I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller’s killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder.”

“He died the way he lived. His was a bloody death,” said the Rev Rusty Thomas of Operation Save America. “Someone ‘chose’ to end George Tiller’s life this morning, in his church.”

Rev. CJ Conner, author of “Jesus and the Culture Wars: Reclaiming the Lord’s Prayer,” said it was Tiller’s church that was to blame.

Mr. Tiller lived quite the murderous life himself, pulling viable babies out by their legs and sucking their brains out with a vacuum. Other Churches called him to repentance and excommunicated him, but Reformation Lutheran, ELCA, enthusiastically embraced him, pocketbook and all.

Church discipline, and the call to repentance, is a matter of life and death in the Church. As Reformation Lutheran mops up Tiller’s blood from their foyer floor, let them not forget that his blood is also on their hands.

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, was saddened but wouldn’t label it an anti-abortion killing.

I am saddened to hear of the killing of George Tiller this morning. At this point, we do not know the motives of this act, or who is behind it, whether an angry post-abortive man or woman, or a misguided activist, or an enemy within the abortion industry, or a political enemy frustrated with the way Tiller has escaped prosecution. We should not jump to conclusions or rush to judgment.

But whatever the motives, we at Priests for Life continue to insist on a culture in which violence is never seen as the solution to any problem. Every life has to be protected, without regard to their age or views or actions.

Related:
Planned Parenthood of Minnesota to get U.S. Marshal protection

‘A fascist movement’: Last late-term-abortion doctor calls Tiller assassin ‘terrorist’