Rudolph defense: Possible Link
Between Clinic, Station Bombs
By Jay Reeves / The Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A judge told prosecutors to turn over information about a bomb found outside Birmingham police headquarters in 1996 after lawyers for Eric Rudolph raised the possibility Wednesday it was somehow linked to a deadly 1998 bomb blast at an abortion clinic just a few miles away.
At the time, authorities said the police station bomb - which was safely disarmed - was similar to the bomb that killed a woman at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, a blast in which Rudolph is charged.
No one was ever charged with planting the police station bomb, but Rudolph is awaiting trial on federal death penalty charges in the abortion clinic bombing, which killed an off-duty Birmingham police officer.
Prosecutors denied suggestions that the two Birmingham bombs were connected.
Attorneys discussed the bombings at a wide-ranging hearing that also included new tidbits of evidence about the case against Rudolph, including the disclosure that a hair found in Rudolph's pickup truck belonged to someone else and that a key government witness graduated from law school under what the defense characterized as questionable circumstances.
Held without bond, Rudolph pleaded not guilty in the clinic bombing, which also critically injured a nurse. His trial is set to begin March 23, but he was not in court for the hearing.
Defense attorney Bill Bowen asked U.S. Magistrate Judge T. Michael Putnam to make prosecutors hand over any reports or other evidence on a bomb found outside police headquarters on Oct. 30, 1996. Disarmed by authorities, the device consisted of three galvanized pipes loaded with explosives and held in a black nylon backpack, similar to the design of the Olympic park bomb.
Under questioning from Putnam, the defense said they could try to prove some link between the bomb found at the police station and the clinic bomb, which was disguised as a potted flower and loaded with nails. Someone could have been trying to kill Birmingham police rather than targeting the abortion industry, Rudolph's attorneys said.
The distinction could be important because Rudolph has been described by some as an abortion opponent, and he also is accused of setting off bombs that went off outside a building that housed an abortion clinic in Atlanta in 1997.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joey Burby said prosecutors don't see a link between the Birmingham clinic bombing and the police station bomb but would give the defense its "fairly thin" file on the police station bomb.
Arguing that prosecutors should be forced to turn over additional information gathered by police about abortion protests and opponents in Birmingham, defense lawyer Judy Clarke said the lack of evidence linking Rudolph with the pro-life movement in Birmingham was "a gaping hole" in the government's case against the North Carolina man.
Burby said a prosecution witness would testify about six fingerprints that could link Rudolph to the clinic bombing, but he confirmed a defense claim that government testing showed that a hair found inside Rudolph's Nissan pickup truck belonged to someone other than Rudolph.
Prosecutors didn't fully address another potential avenue for the defense: Questions over whether an unidentified government witness who said he spotted a man near the abortion clinic the morning of the blast may have later had government assistance getting through law school.
"We find it incredible he graduated from law school. We find it just as incredible as his testimony," Bowen told the judge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Whisonant denied suggestions that someone may have helped the witness with exams in law school, but prosecutors didn't directly address the question of whether he may have received some other type of assistance, perhaps with expenses. Burby said prosecutors would turn over that information closer to trial.
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Posted by Editor at December 15, 2004 08:14 PM
