Confessed bomber
Eric Rudolph, who remained defiant when he admitted
setting deadly explosions in Birmingham, Ala., and
Atlanta, has discussed his reasons only in written
statements. Yet one of his victims hopes to get some
glimmer of response from Rudolph when she comes
face-to-face with the anti-abortion extremist in court
Monday for a sentencing hearing.
"You did not shut the clinic down. You did not
shut me down," said Emily Lyons, who was critically
injured in the 1998 blast outside a Birmingham
abortion clinic where she worked as a nurse. Her message for
Rudolph: His crimes only made her stronger. "I want to see
if it registers with him or to see if it's just more
of that blank look," Lyons said in an interview last week.
Rudolph, 38, pleaded guilty in April to setting
off a remote-controlled bomb that maimed Lyons and
killed police officer Robert "Sande" Sanderson outside
the New Woman All Women clinic on the morning of
January 29, 1998. Sanderson's wife and son also could make
statements at Monday's hearing.
Under a plea agreement that let Rudolph avoid
the possibility of the death penalty, he
confessed to the Alabama bombing and to the bombing at
the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that killed one woman and injured
more than 100 people. He also admitted setting off bombs at
an abortion clinic and a gay bar in Atlanta in 1997.
He was captured in May 2003 after more than five years
as a fugitive in the mountains of western North Carolina.
Under the agreement, federal judges in
Birmingham and Atlanta will sentence him to four life
terms without parole. Rudolph's sentencing in Georgia
is set for August 22, and victims of the Atlanta bombings
will have a chance to speak then.
In a statement distributed after his guilty
pleas, Rudolph portrayed himself as a devout Christian
and said the bombings were motivated by his hatred of
abortion and a federal government that lets it continue.
"The fact that I have entered an agreement with the
government is purely a tactical choice on my part and
in no way legitimates the moral authority of the
government to judge this matter or to impute guilt,"
Rudolph said in the statement.
Lyons was wounded by flying nails and other
pieces of shrapnel in the bombing. She has undergone
21 operations, lost her left eye, and has visible
scars on her arms and legs. She is no longer physically able
to work. She planned to release her self-published
book about the bombing on Monday, her 49th birthday.
(AP)
