The trial of a man who has admitted killing one of the few doctors in the US who performed late-term abortions is due to begin today with the tricky task of selecting jurors on one of the country's most divisive subjects.
A group of 61 potential jurors will report to the Sedgwick county courthouse in Wichita, Kansas, where questions from lawyers will whittle the pool down to 12 jurors and two substitutes. The prosecution and defence teams will aim to remove all those who either strongly support abortion rights or fiercely oppose the practice.
Scott Roeder, 51, is charged with first-degree murder over the shooting of George Tiller, who was killed in May last year in the church where he worshipped. Roeder is also charged with two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly pointing a gun at ushers who tried to stop him afterwards.
One of the ushers told a pre-trial hearing in July that he saw a man, later identified as Roeder, walk up to Tiller, put a gun to his head and pull the trigger.
While Roeder has admitted to reporters and through court documents that he killed Tiller, he is arguing that he is not guilty of murder as the act was performed to save the lives of unborn children. The judge in the case, Warren Wilbert, has allowed Roeder's defence team to argue that this motivation means he should be tried on the charge of voluntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder.
The trial, which is scheduled to involve two weeks of evidence, is likely to become a touchstone for America's increasingly vehement debate on abortion. Several abortion doctors were attacked in the 1990s, including Tiller, who was shot in both arms in 1993 but survived and carried on working.
While the case has received blanket media coverage, the judge has banned reporters from watching the jury selection process, saying he is worried about the potential "chilling effect this might have on juror candour in the case".
Mainstream US anti-abortion groups have distanced themselves from Roeder's arguments.