Plea Deal Is Reached in Olympic Bombing
ATLANTA — With his trial underway, Eric Robert Rudolph agreed to plead guilty to a series of bombings that advanced a militant antigay, antiabortion ideology -- including a deadly explosion at the 1996 Summer Olympics here.
The plea agreement, which the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday, calls for Rudolph to serve a life sentence without parole and allows him to escape the death penalty.
The four bombings killed two people -- a 44-year-old Georgia woman who had come to celebrate the Olympics and an off-duty police officer guarding an Alabama abortion clinic -- and left hundreds of others injured, with lacerations and shrapnel embedded in their bodies. Rudolph is alleged to have claimed responsibility on behalf of the Army of God, a group that advocates killing abortion providers.
In 1998, Rudolph, a survivalist, withdrew to the Appalachian foothills where he grew up. He was captured about two years ago while searching for food in a trash bin in Murphy, N.C. He told jailers he had lived on acorns and lizards while federal agents combed the woods below.
Potential jurors had reported for the trial of Rudolph, 38, in the clinic bombing in Birmingham, Ala. As part of the deal, Rudolph told investigators where to find four large stashes of dynamite that he had buried, federal officials said.
"Justice has prevailed," said Carl Truscott, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Four heinous bombings resulted in two deaths and hundreds injured, and the serial bomber Eric Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars for them."
But as news of the deal rippled through the Southeast on Friday, several victims said they were disappointed that Rudolph would not face the death penalty.
"I've got a piece of metal embedded in my skull, and I got several pieces in my back that always amuse the doctors when they do X-rays," said Ted Riner, 52, a state trooper who was standing near the Olympic Park bomb when it exploded. "Yeah, I'd like to beat
Prosecutors said the deal hinged on finding the 250 pounds of dynamite Rudolph had hidden in North Carolina. Authorities detonated a bomb they found amid his stash that contained 20 to 25 pounds of dynamite; it was hidden "in close proximity to a road, homes, and businesses," according to the Justice Department.
By contrast, the Olympic Park bomb contained 10 pounds of dynamite, said Kent Alexander, who was the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Georgia at the time of the bombings.
