Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONDAY, JULY 18, 2005
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
CRM
(202) 514-2008
TDD (202) 514-1888

ERIC ROBERT RUDOLPH SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR
BIRMINGHAM BOMBING ATTACK


WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Alice H. Martin of the Northern District of Alabama announced today that Eric Robert Rudolph has been sentenced by a federal judge in Birmingham to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the fatal bombing of a Birmingham family planning clinic in 1998 that killed Police Officer Robert Sanderson and critically injured nurse Emily Lyons. The court also ordered restitution to the victims in the amount of $1,002,176.43.

U.S. District Court Judge C. Lynwood Smith imposed the sentence at a hearing in Birmingham this morning. Rudolph also faces sentencing in the Northern District of Georgia on Monday, Aug. 22, 2005, for the fatal bombing at Olympic Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, which killed Olympic spectator Alice Hawthorne and seriously injured more than 100 other people, and for the 1997 bombings of a Sandy Springs, Georgia family planning clinic and a Midtown Atlanta nightclub, the Otherside Lounge.

“Eric Rudolph’s terrorist attacks in Birmingham and Atlanta took the lives of two innocent people and injured hundreds more,” said Attorney General Gonzales. “Our thoughts today are with the victims of his heinous crimes, who will see justice served as he spends the remainder of his life behind bars. I am grateful to the dedicated officers, agents and prosecutors who doggedly pursued this case, and I thank them for the persistence and hard work that brought it to a close.”

“Eric Rudolph is a domestic terrorist who will no longer be able to attempt to inflict his ‘private justice’ on innocent citizens. He will now be locked up in prison, where he belongs, for the rest of his natural life,” said U.S. Attorney Martin. “I thank the members of the prosecution team and members of law enforcement who fought tirelessly since 1998 to seek justice for victims and the survivor of the Birmingham bombing.”

Rudolph, 38, of Murphy, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on April 13, 2005 to the bombing attack on the New Women All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham on Jan. 29, 1998 and the three Atlanta bombing attacks, and waived all appeals. The plea agreements provided for multiple life sentences for Rudolph without the possibility of parole. Pursuant to the plea agreements, Rudolph disclosed to the government the existence and locations of more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in several locations in the Western North Carolina area. As required by the plea agreements, Rudolph described the locations of the explosives and other dangerous materials, and provided other information necessary for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and others to find the locations and conduct render-safe procedures.

The Birmingham case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama - Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael W. Whisonant and William R. Chambers - and R. Joseph Burby IV of the Northern District of Georgia. The Atlanta case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias of the Northern District of Georgia, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Phyllis B. Sumner, R. Joseph Burby IV and John Horn.

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