Newswire

Prosecutors defend work of labs, agents in Eric Rudolph case

Prosecutors defend work of labs in Rudolph case

By Jay Reeves / The Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Prosecutors are defending government crime laboratories and investigators against claims by Eric Rudolph that their work was shoddy and scientific evidence that could link him to a deadly abortion clinic bombing should be thrown out.

In nearly 350 pages of documents filed Monday, prosecutors said jurors should be allowed to see the evidence without a hearing on whether it had been contaminated by mishandling.

"The defendant's arguments conveniently ignore the stubborn facts that indicate that cross-contamination did not occur in this case," the government said in documents filed late Monday.

The papers were the prosecution's first public response to allegations raised last month by Rudolph's lawyers, who claimed internal audits found "numerous deficiencies" at crime labs operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Those problems could discredit evidence allegedly linking Rudolph to the clinic bombing, the defense argued.

Rudolph's attorneys also argued that investigators who worked on the bombing scene and, later, at Rudolph's trailer in North Carolina may have unknowingly spread explosives traces to sunglasses, a chair cushion, a towel and other items owned by Rudolph.

In response, posecutors filed documents arguing that jurors should get to see a bomb model made by an ATF agent. While the defense claimed the model includes components not found at the scene of the blast, the government said it wasn't supposed to be an exact replica, just an example.

U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith has scheduled a hearing for March 28 on defense challenges of the bomb model and the work of forensic experts who examined bomb fragments.

Preliminary jury selection is set to begin March 23 in Rudolph's trial on death penalty charges of detonating a bomb that killed a police officer and critically injured a nurse outside the clinic in 1998.

Rudolph, who pleaded not guilty, also is charged with setting the bomb that killed a woman at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and in other Atlanta-area bombings in 1997.


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Posted by Editor at March 1, 2005 06:41 AM