Eric Rudolph to plead guilty in Atlanta Olympic bombing

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Eric Rudolph has agreed to plead guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and setting off three other blasts in a deal that allows the anti-government extremist to escape the death penalty, the Justice Department said Friday.

"The many victims of Eric Rudolph's terrorist attacks ... can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a statement from Washington.

Rudolph, 38, is scheduled to admit his guilt Wednesday in court. The plea deal calls for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Rudolph had faced a possible death sentence.

Defense attorney Bill Bowen did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Rudolph, thought to be a follower of a white supremacist religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic, was charged with carrying out a series of blasts in Georgia and Alabama in the late 1990s that killed two people and injured more than 120.

One woman was killed and more than 100 people were injured in the Olympic blast, caused by a bomb in a knapsack that sent nails and screws ripping through a packed crowd that had gathered to watch a rock concert. In the next two years, he allegedly set off bombs at a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta and at two abortion clinics -- one in Birmingham and one in Atlanta. The Birmingham attack killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.

Linda Bourgeois, administrator at the Birmingham abortion clinic, said a couple of employees "jumped and down and screamed" in excitement over the news of the plea deal. "We think it's a victory for all women everywhere," she said.

But Jeff Lyons, whose wife was left blind in one eye in the Alabama bombing, said he and his wife were "extremely disappointed" in the life sentences. "As they say, let the punishment fit the crime. That was a death sentence," he said.

Lyons said he understood prosecutors' reasons for agreeing to a plea deal since Rudolph directed them to explosives -- something that likely would not have happened had the case gone to trial. The government said some of the explosives were found "relatively near populated areas."

The husband and daughter of Alice Hawthorne of Albany, Ga., who was killed in the Olympics bombing, said they reluctantly went along with the deal to make sure others don't get hurt.

Husband John Hawthorne and daughter Fallon Stubbs said in a statement that they "would not want their unwillingness to support a plea bargain to result in the loss of life and/or serious injury to unsuspecting citizens who may come across the explosives."

Investigators suspect that sympathizers in the countryside may have assisted Rudolph during his time on the run.

Locals reported seeing a great deal of traffic earlier this week as agents in SUVs drove through seculded mountain areas known mostly for wild hog hunting. Then they saw plumes of smoke and felt the windows rattle as agents disposed of the explosives.

"I saw a lot of vehicles. I thought it was a wedding or someone was dead," said Kenneth Dockery, a 65-year-old retiree.

Charles Stone, a retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who helped oversee the Rudolph bombing probe, said a life sentence may be a more fitting punishment for a man who thrived in the outdoors.

"He'll be caged for the rest of his life, and from a retribution aspect, that's probably worse than a death sentence for him," Stone said.

After the Olympic bombing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that security guard Richard Jewell was being investigated in the bombing. But he was cleared by the FBI three months later and eventually filed a civil lawsuit against the newspaper that is still pending.

Jewell's attorney said Friday that the plea deal should be a final vindication. "One does not have to speculate a great deal to imagine how he will feel when he does receive this final and total vindication," attorney L. Lin Wood said.

Justice Department officials chose the Birmingham bombing as the one to try first, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to seek the death penalty if Rudolph was convicted. Right after Rudolph's capture, Ashcroft predicted the Alabama trial would be "relatively short and straightforward."

Jury selection in the Birmingham bombing case began this week.