Olympics bomber to avoid death in plea bargain
Eric Rudolph plans to explain how and why he committed a string of deadly bombings starting with a blast at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 – but not just yet, his lawyer said on the eve of court appearances.
Rudolph, due in court today for twin hearings in Alabama and Georgia where he is set to plead guilty to four bombings, will do the minimum required by law to convince a judge of his guilt: Answering “yes” when asked if he agrees with evidence laid out by prosecutors.
“I think Mr Rudolph will say that’s what the government could prove if they went to trial,” defence lawyer Bill Bowen said. “It’s mainly just yes and no questions.”
Sometime after the plea hearings, Bowen said, Rudolph intends to release a written statement explaining the bombings, which killed a woman at the Olympics and a police officer at an abortion clinic in Birmingham in 1998.
Rudolph, who also has confessed to planting bombs at a gay bar and an abortion clinic in Atlanta in 1997, will receive four consecutive life terms instead of facing the possibility of a death sentence if judges accept the deal.
Rudolph, believed to be a follower of a white supremacist religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic, eluded a five-year manhunt in the Appalachian wilderness. He was captured in 2003.
