Rudolph's defense to challenge extremist label
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VIDEO
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CNN's Art Harris says jailers in Cherokee County, North Carolina, put Eric Rudolph at ease and got him to talk about surviving in the woods.
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| HOW HE SURVIVED |
• Killed turkeys, deer and bear for food
• Covered sleeping bag with leaves in cold weather
• Ate corn, soybeans stolen from farm bins
• Ate crushed turkey bones for calcium
Source: Law enforcement officials
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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- Eric Robert Rudolph's defense plans to challenge characterizations of the serial bombing suspect as a hate-filled, anti-government extremist, his attorney said Thursday.
"We intend to challenge that right now and challenge that throughout," said Richard Jaffe at a news conference. "There's no evidence of anger or extremism that I've seen in any form or fashion. That's consistent with what the law enforcement said when they found him and talked with him."
Authorities have alleged that Rudolph's bombing spree was motivated by his extremist views, instilled by an association with the Christian Identity movement, which touts racist, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-government beliefs.
But Jaffe said that characterization is not consistent with his client's demeanor, which he described as "very calm, very concerned, very reflective, very thoughtful."
Jaffe also urged the media and public not to try Rudolph by "innuendo and speculation and hearsay."
"We are really not Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1600s. We are in Birmingham, Alabama, where people get fair trials, where jurors are fair and trials are done by the book," Jaffe said.
He also vowed to provide Rudolph with a "zealous" defense.
"We intend to challenge every bit of evidence, or lack of evidence, and we intend that this case will ultimately be made, or not made, in a court of law," he said.
Rudolph, 36, was captured over the weekend in North Carolina after eluding authorities for five years. He now sits in a Birmingham jail, accused of exploding a bomb in 1998 at a women's health clinic where abortions are performed.
An off-duty policeman working as a security guard was killed, and a nurse seriously wounded in that bombing.
He has also been charged in connection with three bombings in the Atlanta area, including an explosion during the 1996 Olympics that killed a woman and injured more than 100 people. The other bombings were at a lesbian nightclub and a clinic where abortions are performed.
Rudolph will face trial first in Birmingham. Jaffe said Thursday that the defense will conduct polling to measure attitudes among potential jurors in the area before deciding whether to try to move the trial to another location.
"We're not going to make any decisions about a change of venue until we do have, or don't have, scientific validation one way or the other as to whether this venue works," he said. "My sense is this venue works, but we'll see again what the polling results reveal."
Jaffe also said Rudolph's long run from the law, hiding out in the rugged mountains of western North Carolina, should not be considered evidence of his guilt.
"There are all kinds of reasons why people get scared and run and hide, and I don't know what I would do if I was the subject of a nationwide manhunt when a law enforcement [officer's] life was needlessly taken," he said.
