BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Defense lawyers are questioning claims of a black man who allegedly saw Eric Rudolph near the scene of a deadly abortion clinic blast, arguing his identification may be flawed because Rudolph is white.
In a document filed Wednesday, Rudolph's attorneys asked a judge to consider allowing testimony from a university professor about the shakiness of so-called "cross-racial identifications" and eyewitness identifications in general.
The government has opposed the testimony, calling it unscientific and claiming such evidence was barred in other courts.
Court documents indicate a hearing will be held on whether jurors should be allowed to see a variety of scientific evidence in Rudolph's trial — scheduled to begin in late March with two months of jury selection — but no date for a hearing has been set.
The defense wants jurors to hear from Steven Penrod, a psychology professor from New York. Penrod has testified in other cases about the difficulty witnesses have accurately identifying people of other races, Rudolph's lawyers said.
Prosecutors object to testimony by Penrod, arguing other courts have refused to let him testify about eyewitness identification. His testimony could "confuse, mislead and potentially usurp the jury," prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers want to use Penrod to challenge the testimony of a black man identified in court papers only as "J.H." The witness, attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham at the time, allegedly saw Rudolph within a block of the clinic when the bomb went off on Jan. 29, 1998.
The defense said the importance of J.H.'s testimony to the prosecution's case "cannot be overestimated."
"No witness ever saw Mr. Rudolph on the property of the abortion clinic. J.H. is the only witness who will be able to place Mr. Rudolph anywhere near abortion clinic close to the time of the explosion," the defense argued in asking a judge to let Penrod testify.
Court documents show that J.H. followed a man believed to be Rudolph after the bombing. The witness's actions led to the sighting of Rudolph's truck in Birmingham shortly after the explosion, prompting a more than five-year manhunt that ended with Rudolph's arrest in May 2003 in North Carolina.
Jailed without bond since then, Rudolph pleaded innocent in the Alabama bombing, which killed a police office and seriously injured a nurse. He could be sentenced to death if convicted.
Rudolph also is charged with setting a bomb that exploded at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, killing a woman and injuring dozens, and with other bombings in Atlanta in 1997.
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Posted by Editor at February 9, 2005 11:54 AM
