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 2009, Roeder publicly confessed to the killing, telling the Associated Press that he had shot Tiller because "preborn children's lives were in imminent danger." Roeder was found guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault on January 29, 2010, and sentenced on April 1, 2010, to life imprisonment without any chance of parole for 50 years. George Tiller was shot dead on May 31, 2009, during worship services at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, where he was serving as an usher. The church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Tiller was shot in