Posted on 07/18/2005 1:23:45 PM PDT by Fierce Allegiance
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - An unrepentant Eric Rudolph declared Monday that abortion must be fought with "deadly force" as a judge sentenced him to life in prison for setting off a remote-controlled bomb at an abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.
"Children are disposed of at will," the 38-year-old Rudolph said, jabbing the air in a speech that echoed a rambling manifesto he issued in April when he pleaded guilty to four bombings in all, including the blast at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. "The state is no longer the protector of the innocents."
Rudolph's fiery statement came as his victims confronted him court, branding the anti-abortion extremist a cowardly "monster" and recalling how their lives were devastated by the 1998 clinic bombing in Birmingham.
"It gives me great delight to know you are going to spend the rest of your life sitting in an 8-by-12 box," said the clinic's director, Diane Derzis.
Under a plea bargain that spared him a death sentence, Rudolph received two life sentences without parole for the Birmingham bombing. Next month, he will receive two more life terms for the deadly Olympic bombing and two other attacks in Atlanta.
Rudolph spent more than five years on the run in the North Carolina wilderness, employing the survivalist techniques he learned as a soldier. He was captured in 2003 while scavenging for food behind a grocery store.
When it was his turn to speak Monday, Rudolph angrily lashed out at abortion and the Birmingham clinic.
"What they did was participate in the murder of 50 children a week," he said, shackled at the ankles and wearing a red jail uniform. "Abortion is murder and because it is murder I believe deadly force is needed to stop it."
Emily Lyons, the nurse wounded by his bomb, said Rudolph was nothing but a coward.
"When it was your turn to face death you weren't so brave again," Lyons said in a forceful voice, occasionally looking across the aisle at Rudolph. "You want to see a monster, all you have to do is look in the mirror."
The bombing also killed police officer Robert "Sande" Sanderson outside the New Woman All Women clinic. Sanderson's widow, speaking with Rudolph to her back, told the court she will "never forget the look on my son's face when I told him Sande was gone."
"I want to tell you there is no punishment in my opinion great enough for Eric Rudolph. When Eric Rudolph leaves this earth and has to face final judgment, I'm going to leave the final judgment in God's hand," she said.
Seated at the defense table, Rudolph nodded in agreement.
Lyons was wounded by flying nails and other shrapnel. She has undergone 21 operations, lost her left eye and has scars on her arms and legs. She is no longer able to work.
But she said Rudolph failed to deter her or the work of the women's clinic.
"I faced five pounds of dynamite and hundreds of nails yet I survived," she said. "Do I look afraid? You damaged my body, but you did not create the fear you sought."
Rudolph faces sentencing Aug. 22 in Atlanta for the Olympic bombing, which killed one woman and injured more than 100 other people, and for 1997 bombings at an abortion clinic and a gay bar in Atlanta.
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I saw a screen crawl this morning on ABC news that said he had bombed a "Women's Clinic". Freeking ABC pukes afraid to call it an ABORTION clinic... Nauseating.
He should have gotten "yellow mama".
Do they teach dumpster diving in basic training?
Insurgent
Undocumented Entrant
It's all the same shit. They are liars. They are out to destroy the USA.
Let me state for clarification that I personally think Rudolph is a fetid piece of sh*t. It's just a side point that ABC News is congenitally gutless.
If anyone is a danger to society, this one is. That's why we have a death penalty....and I don't want to have to pay for squares and a bed for this one for the rest of his life.
Better than he deserved.
I understand what you are trying to say.
They say women's clinic...like its a place where women go to be cared for....
Its an ABORTION CLINIC!!
Agreed. We have another chance Aug 22, though.
I heard he did the Olympic bombing? What was that about?
Aye, CM55.
Doesn't he understand you have to have a license to kill, for your beliefs you can get them from any state as a doctor.
He deserves the chair.
bttt to that
If he was willing to kill other people for his beliefs, why wasn't he willing to die for them himself instead of pleading guilty to avoid the needle?
A key question, indeed.
Abortion is an end of a promise.
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