Prosecutors allege link between Rudolph, anti-abortion figure
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Prosecutors in the trial of Eric Rudolph, charged in a fatal abortion clinic bombing, want to show jurors that he had ties to a Tennessee church led by an anti-abortion activist.
In court papers filed over the weekend, prosecutors said Rudolph's "expressed anti-abortion views and his association with anti-abortion activists will clearly help set the stage for the crime, give it context, and will help the jury understand the reasons" for it.
The defense objects to the evidence as irrelevant and as a violation of Rudolph's First Amendment rights.
Prosecutors also suggest Rudolph may have financed the bombing and his low-profile lifestyle from the sale of marijuana grown around his home in western North Carolina.
The documents were filed ahead of a hearing Tuesday in Huntsville in which a federal judge will consider whether to let prosecutors present certain scientific evidence, including what the government says is a replica of the deadly clinic bomb.
Preliminary jury selection in Rudolph's federal death penalty trial is set for April 6. Opening statements may not begin until early June.
In a filing that reveals some possible evidence against Rudolph, prosecutors indicated they want to introduce testimony about Rudolph's association with a fundamentalist church in Benton, Tenn., led by Dr. John Grady, an early activist against abortion in Florida.
In a telephone interview Monday, Grady told The Associated Press he did not recall Rudolph ever visiting his small congregation, "but that certainly doesn't mean he didn't." The congregation, which he described as Catholic, lacks a full-time priest, and Grady said he serves as a lay leader.
Grady, who has written a booklet offered for sale by pro-life groups, said he is "very much opposed to abortion" and called it the "crime of the century." But implying that his beliefs could fuel Rudolph to bomb an abortion clinic is "really stretching it," said Grady, 74.
Grady said he does not expect to testify in Rudolph's trial.
The defense also is trying to limit evidence about Rudolph's "negative views about the government, African-Americans, Jews and homosexuals," according to the government. Prosecutors claim such attitudes were "inextricably linked" to Rudolph's views against abortion.
Besides the Alabama bombing, Rudolph is accused of setting the bomb that killed a woman during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and bombings in metro Atlanta in 1997, including at a gay nightclub.
Separately, prosecutors said they want to show jurors evidence about Rudolph's alleged production, possession and sale of marijuana. The illegal sales helped Rudolph get by with only limited contact with people in his rural community and "possibly purchase components for his explosive device," they claimed.
The government said Deborah Rudolph, a former sister-in-law of the defendant, sold marijuana provided by Rudolph after he brought it to her in Nashville, Tenn. She previously has publicly described Rudolph's marijuana growing, anti-Semitism and hatred of the government.
The defense opposes introducing the evidence about marijuana, but did not elaborate in the weekend filings.
It was unclear whether evidence about the Tennessee church or the alleged drug dealings will come up during the hearing set to begin Tuesday in Huntsville before U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr.
In that hearing, Smith said he will primarily consider whether the government can present testimony about a model of the bomb that killed a police officer and critically injured a nurse outside a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998. The defense opposes letting jurors see the replica.
The defense also is challenging testimony from forensic experts who allegedly found evidence linking the blast to explosives traces found in Rudolph's trailer home.
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Posted by Editor at March 28, 2005 09:45 PM
