Rudolph's attorneys want bombing trial moved
They will say media attention has tainted jury pool
From Henry Schuster
CNN
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (CNN) -- Serial bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph and his attorneys will argue in court Tuesday that his case should be moved because he cannot get a fair trial in Birmingham, where he is charged with bombing a women's clinic in 1998.
Tuesday's hearing on a change of venue motion is being held in Huntsville, where the judge assigned to Rudolph's case, U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr., is based.
Rudolph was moved to Huntsville from a jail in Birmingham several days ago in anticipation of the hearing.
Rudolph is charged with the bombing of the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham on January 29, 1998.
An off-duty police officer working as a security guard at the clinic -- where abortions are performed -- was killed by the blast and a nurse was maimed.
After a manhunt lasting more than five years, Rudolph was caught May 31, 2003, in Murphy, North Carolina.
He also faces charges connected with a string of bombings in Atlanta, Georgia, including the blast at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics that killed one woman and injured more than 100 others.
Rudolph's defense team is expected to argue, as it did in a motion requesting the venue hearing, that since the bombing, overwhelming "sensationalistic and biased" media coverage has made finding a fair and impartial jury impossible in Birmingham or the surrounding Northern District of Alabama.
At the hearing Tuesday, the defense will present the results of its polling in the district, which found that with only minor prompting, 97 percent of those questioned were aware of the case and 65 percent said Rudolph was either definitely or probably guilty.
Among those who believed the death penalty was an appropriate punishment in a murder case, "Seventy-eight percent felt that the death penalty was a more appropriate punishment for Mr. Rudolph than life without the possibility of parole," according to the defense motion.
The defense will also offer polling results from Seattle, Washington, showing that significantly fewer people there had made up their minds about the case.
Federal prosecutors are likely to call at least one witness who will testify the polling was flawed.
Their argument, which was outlined in a response to the defense motion, says the polling was "rife with inherent and fundamental methodological flaws."
They are also expected to argue that even with such polling, "the defendant has failed to establish that jurors could not set aside these notions and render a verdict based solely on evidence presented in court," according to the prosecution motion.
Rudolph's trial on the Birmingham bombing charges is scheduled to begin in early August. The defense wants the trial delayed until June 2005 because it says it needs more time to review evidence. Prosecutors strongly oppose the delay.
The judge is not expected to set any new trial date until he rules on the change of venue. The hearing on that issue could continue through Wednesday.
