Why no death penalty for clinic bomber Eric Rudolph?

[quaoar]

Eric Rudolph, the guy who eluded the FBI for years after killing a law enforcement officer in Birmingham, Ala., when he set off a bomb at an abortion clinic, will be allowed to plead guilty and avoid the death penalty.

If Rudolph had blown up anything else, would be still be given the chance to make a deal? Have you ever heard of a cop-killing terrorist being allowed to escape execution?

Deals like this aren't made at the local level either. This one had to be signed off on in Washington.

[xultar]

1. But they wanna execute kids. What is this country coming to? n/t

[FreedomAngel82]

30. More "culture of life" b.s.

He isn't because of the place. It was an abortion clinic. In the freepers minds he's praised because that means one less abortion clinic to them. Fucking asses. But yet they turn around and allow children to be executed. Disgusting indeed!!!

[rwheeler31]

2. I am so happy they did this deal

This guy will talk later.

[dsc]

3. I would imagine that they feared losing the case

due to right wing nuts on the jury or the fact that witnesses have a way of getting worse with time.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. Jury nullification would have been a real possibility

Fully Informed Jury Association

or

American Jury Institute

[dsc]

32. I think the plea was a very good idea

[NNN0LHI]

4. Bomber? He is a terrorist n/t

[illflem]

5. Quite common for a guilty plea to be traded for death

Way I see the pile of shit won't cost the taxpayers as much now.
Even if he had gotten the death penalty it would be 20 years before he was executed. With life with no parole no pleas, just rot in jail.

[ElectricIron Sweeney]

10. Notice the face in the sun?

He won't be seeing much of that and he knows it.

[ret5hd]

6. Well, I wanna know why he doesn't WANT to be executed...

you know, go to his great reward up in the sky, him being a faithful xian and all. Surely he believes he's going to be rewarded, right. C'mon you wimp, show all us heathens how a XIAN faces death with a sureness of heart that a reward in heaven awaits you.\

fuckin' asswart.

[leftofthedial]

7. one man's "terrist"

is another man's culture of life hero

[TwentyFive]

8. Everytime he kneels to pray - he will be forced into an oral sex act.

For him, this will be a fate worse than death.

[ulysses]

9. he's white. n/t

[MollyStark]

11. I am against the death penalty so this is good as far as I am concerned

I get what you are saying. The reason he was allowed to plea bargain was because they needed the confession and the information he gave them in exchange.

[DefenseLawyer]

17. As an opponent of the death penalty

I agree that this is a good resolution. That being said, it will be noteworthy that the kind of nutjobs that were just this week advocating killing Justice Kennedy for holding juvenile executions unconstitutional, won't be complaining that Rudolph was spared.

[MollyStark]

22. They are horrible ignorant people

They can't help being evil I guess.

[mitchtv]

12. One word; ALABAMA

They'd be lucky to get a conviction

[Bouncy Ball]

13. I'm against the death penalty, so I'm fine with him

rotting in prison for the rest of his natural days for what he did.

[Rowdyboy]

14. He had buried a shit-load of explosives....The Feds wanted to know

where they were hidden to prevent him from ever passing them along to some of his fellow terrorists. No deal was reached until they had verified that the explosives had been found and accounted for.

[maveric]

15. And serial killer Henry Lee Lucas's death sentence was commuted.

He's white too.

[BuyingThyme]

16. Who here thinks this kind of thing is acceptable?

Do you think it's appropriate for defendants to choose between pleading guilty and dying?

To me, this is just another argument against the death penalty -- more proof that that capital punishment is a dark stain on our legal system.

[The Doctor.]

18. It was a plea deal.

Such is common.

Not to mention that this will give the families of his victims time to put together biographies with pictures of the people he murdered.

They should send him something every month or so.

I would.

[LSdemocrat]

20. You're assuming he's ashamed of what he's done

[The Doctor.]

29. Anyone can be broken.

Anyone.

[quaoar]

27. It's not common

when law enforcement officers are killed.

[Princess Turandot]

19. Among other things they said he gave them the location of a bunch..

of caches of explosives. (Maybe the missing WMDs..)
He killed 2 people I think; someone else died from a heart attack who was at the site of the Olympics bombing.

I heard a woman interviewed on CNN who survived one of the bombings - maybe the nurse - who was very upset, but she said that she had heard that at least one of the families of the people who died were okay with LWOP.

Maybe they were embarassed at how long it took it find the jerk.
The NY Times quotes a book written abt the case, which said a local sheriff had found his trailer right after the bombing, called the FBI and said his department could bring him in, but the FBI told them to wait for them to arrive. By then he was gone from his trailer.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/national/10rudolph.html?pagewanted=2

[MadMichDem]

21. He still has to go to trial in GA for the Olympics bombing

and I think also the bombing of an abortion clinic.

[R. A. Fuqua]

24. I don't believe in

the death penalty ever--not for anyone. Too many innocent people end up being convicted and with death there is no way to fix societies mistakes.

Prison for life is an appropriate punishment in my opinion.

[mitchtv]

25. Well, he was accused of bombing a Lesbian bar

that should get him a trip to the WH and the medal of freedom
maybe Kennedy Center later this year

[carnie_sf]

26. He's white

and he bombed abortion clinics. He's one of theirs.

[fortyfeetunder]

28. I think he will escape from prison

There are sympathizers inside the prison as well as outside. I can't imagine Rudolph will not try to escape, and probably has his support group lined up.

[deadcenter]

31. shame

He's an embarrassment to the FBI and every other government law enforcement agency that spent millions trying to find him, only to have a rookie cop in a small town make the bust. Plea bargain means no trial. If this went to trial, it'd be news for as long as the trial was going on and someone would have asked the question FBI guys don't want answered, "how'd you manage to stay loose for so long?"

I've no doubt that giving up the hidden explosives had some part in it, but I think that get this case out of the spotlight with as little fanfare as possible had more to do with it.

deadcenter

[MollyStark]

33. There is nothing shameful about not executing someone

I am guessing it had more to do with being afraid their case wasn't strong enough.