Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Kansas: Phill Kline gets one more chance to charge Wichita abortion doctor

By Diane Silver

If you're following outgoing Attorney General Phill Kline's on-again/off-again effort to nail Dr. George Tiller on misdemeanor charges, mark 2 p.m. tomorrow on your calendar.

That's when Sedgwick County District Judge Paul W. Clark has scheduled a hearing to reconsider his decision to dismiss the charges Kline filed against the doctor. The charges were dismissed over a jurisdictional issue. The hearing will be limited to discussing narrow legal issues. It will not deal with the substance the charges Kline filed against Tiller.

AP reports:
Clark said today that he will consider only whether a district court can limit a district attorney's power to dismiss a criminal case and, if there are circumstances allowing a court to intervene, whether they are present in Tiller's case.

In his one-page notice for the hearing, Clark also said an attorney for Tiller and Attorney General-elect Paul Morrison could participate.

Thus, Clark may well have not only set up a hearing to consider legal issues, but may have created a duel between bitter political opponents. Pistols anyone?

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