Courts in two states preparing for crowded Rudolph hearing
ATLANTA -- Federal court officials in Alabama and Georgia are hooking up closed-circuit televisions and setting aside extra space to accommodate the dozens of victims expected to show up when suspected serial bomber Eric Rudolph pleads guilty Wednesday.
Whether the public will learn why Rudolph, an anti-government extremist, detonated bombs at the 1996 Olympics and three other sites that killed two and injured more than 120 is unclear.
"To an extent, the Olympics may have reflected a view, albeit a paranoid one, that we were moving to a world government or a new world order," said Kent Alexander, who was U.S. Attorney when the Atlanta Games were bombed. "The only one who knows is Eric Rudolph, and maybe we'll hear from him on Wednesday."
Messages left for two of Rudolph's lawyers seeking comment were not returned Monday.
Rudolph is scheduled to appear in federal court in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday morning to plead guilty to a 1998 blast at a Birmingham abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse. After that hearing, the U.S. Marshal's Service will transport Rudolph to federal court in Atlanta, where he is expected to plead guilty to the deadly bombing at the Olympics and separate blasts in 1997 at a gay nightclub and a women's clinic.
The plea deal calls for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is not expected until a later date, which has not yet been set.
In Atlanta, a closed-circuit video feed will be run from U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell's 23rd-floor courtroom to an overflow courtroom down the hall. The two courtrooms hold about 300 people, and every seat is expected to be filled with victims, attorneys, law enforcement personnel and reporters, said district court executive John Shope.
"We may have enough media interest to fill one courtroom," Shope said. "We pretty well expect to fill up both courtrooms. Once it starts, it's shut. If you leave the courtroom, you lose your seat."
Passes for access to the two courtrooms will be handed out starting at 1 p.m. EDT on a first-come-first-serve basis, Shope said.
The court is not allowing cameras or electronic devices of any kind in either Atlanta courtroom, Shope said.
The hearing is expected to last more than one hour.
Victims aren't likely to be given a chance to make statements until sentencing. Rudolph could say something, but typically any lengthy statement from a defendant is not made until sentencing.
Shope said officials were still tabulating Monday how many victims planned to attend Wednesday's hearing.
In Birmingham, Rudolph will enter his guilty plea in an eighth-floor courtroom that seats about 100, just blocks from the abortion clinic where the 1998 bomb went off. About 180 more people will be able to watch in a ground-floor juror assembly room through a closed-circuit television feed.
The two courts have set up phone lines for victims to receive updated information on the hearing. The U.S. Attorney's Office also began sending out letters to victims on Friday and has contacted some by phone. A spokesman declined to release the letter to the media on Monday.
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Posted by Editor at April 12, 2005 09:20 AM
