Covenant News Wire Service

Ala. Judge Rejects Rudolph
Bid to Drop Death Penalty

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A federal magistrate Tuesday rejected a defense claim that prosecutors erred in seeking the death penalty against serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, who is set for trial this spring in a 1998 abortion clinic bombing.

In an advisory report that now goes to a district judge for review, U.S. Magistrate Judge T. Michael Putnam said Rudolph's lawyers were wrong in claiming the government waited too long to formally announce it would try to have Rudolph executed.

Arrested in May 2003 after more than five years as a fugitive, Rudolph is charged with using a bomb in a lethal crime, which carries a possible death sentence upon conviction.

Putnam said prosecutors informed the court of their desire to execute Rudolph in December 2003, or about 17 months ahead of the expected start of testimony in his trial this coming May. Putnam called the time lag "reasonable" and within the law.

But Putnam also said a defense request to bar the government from seeking capital punishment was premature, meaning it could come up again as the trial nears.

Putnam's recommendations go to U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith for final review.

Besides the Alabama bombing, Rudolph is charged with setting the bomb that killed a woman at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and a pair of bombings in Atlanta in 1997.


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Posted by Editor at January 19, 2005 06:15 AM