Troy Newman (activist) on its campaign against abortion doctor George Tiller, which culminated in his assassination by Scott Roeder, an Operation Rescue supporter. More recently, Newman attracted international attention for his illegal entry to Australia (and subsequent deportation). Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Newman was adopted at birth to a family in San Diego, California, where he grew up as a self-described "surfer boy". He has cited his own experience as an adoptee as one of the reasons for his anti-abortion views. Newman made contact with his birth father later in life, and subsequently added his birth father's surname, Mariotti, to his own, although
Assassination of George Tiller Roeder's attorneys appealed the conviction, arguing that the jury should have been given the voluntary manslaughter option. The Kansas Supreme Court heard the appeal on January 29, 2014, and rejected it, upholding Roeder's conviction, on October 24, 2014. On April 1, 2010, in Wichita, Kansas, Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert sentenced Roeder to a "Hard 50", meaning life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years, for the murder of Tiller, the maximum sentence available in Kansas, plus an additional two years for the two counts of aggravated assault. Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court has altered