Abortion Doctor’s Attacker Gets 11-Year Term, Shows No Regret

WICHITA, Kan. —  Comparing herself to Jesus and insisting that she had not done anything wrong, a woman who admitted shooting an abortion doctor outside his clinic was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 11 years in prison.

Rachelle Shannon was convicted March 25 of attempted first-degree murder in the attack on Dr. George Tiller, whose Women’s Health Care Services clinic has long been a target of anti-abortion activities.

Tiller was shot in both arms as he left his clinic Aug. 19. The wounds were minor and he returned to work the next day.

Shannon, 38, of Grants Pass, Ore., told Sedgwick County District Judge Gregory Waller at her sentencing hearing that attacking Tiller was not wrong.

“You didn’t do wrong? You did wrong,” Waller said.

“They said that about Jesus,” Shannon replied.

Shannon also was convicted of aggravated assault for pointing a gun at a clinic employee and was found in contempt for refusing to say where she got the gun.

State and federal authorities in several jurisdictions are investigating her possible links to violence against abortion clinics.

Waller sentenced Shannon to nine years and eight months in prison on the charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault. He also sentenced her on the contempt charge to a year in county jail, to be served after the prison sentence.

The prison sentence could be reduced to seven years and nine months for good behavior. There is no automatic reduction of the county jail sentence.

Shannon has been in custody since the shooting in lieu of $1-million bail. She will get credit for jail time already served.

Shannon told the judge that she felt sorry for Tiller when she saw photos of his wounds.

But she agreed with Dist. Atty. Nola Foulston’s assertion that she showed no remorse, because “it would be hypocritical to pretend like I feel like I did something wrong when I know I didn’t,” Shannon said.

She said she would never again touch a gun, not because of what she did to Tiller but because of what her actions have done to her and her family.

Her husband, David, and daughter, Angi, were not present for the sentencing.