(ATR) Eric Rudolph, charged with planting the bomb that led to two deaths and more than 100 injuries during the Atlanta Olympics is getting ready to plead guilty to the attack and three other bombings in the 1990â??s.
Rudolph was about to go on trial in Alabama for one of those bombings. A policeman and a nurse were killed at an abortion clinic in Birmingham.
Facing the death penalty, Rudolph would receive life imprisonment in exchange for his plea.
Rudolph, 38, spent five years on the run after he was named as the prime suspect. He was captured in 2003 after apparently spending most of his time as a fugitive in the mountains of western North Carolina.
The Centennial Olympic Park bombing happened at the end of day nine of the Atlanta Games. A backpack stuffed with explosives and nails went off near the main entertainment stage of the park with thousands of visitors nearby.
Despite the blast, the Olympics continued but the park, at the center of the Atlanta Games, was closed for several days and reopened only after security screening was put in place for all visitors.
Questions over security at the park are at the heart of lawsuits filed by 39 of the people injured in the bombing, the first of which is set to go to trial May 2 in Atlanta.
Attorney Jay Sadd tells Around the Rings that â??gross inadequacies in securityâ? by Atlanta Olympic organizers led to the bombing.
The trial could bring to the witness stand executives from ACOG, the now-dissolved Atlanta organizing committee as well as security experts.
He says Rudolphâ??s guilty pleas wonâ??t affect the civil case, but Sadd has hopes that Rudolph might offer his testimony as to â??the lax security and how easy it was for him to bring a bomb into the park.â?
Sadd says Rudolph could help his victims with testimony that could reveal the truth about the circumstances of the park bomb.
â??Itâ??s always best to get it from the horseâ??s mouth,â? says Sadd.
More Olympics News of the Week in the April 8 issue of Around the Rings.Com, for subscribers only.
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