Court upholds life sentences for Atlanta Olympics, abortion clinic bomber
A man sentenced to life imprisonment for fatal bombings at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and an Alabama abortion clinic will not get a chance at a new sentence, an appeals court ruled Monday.
A three-judge of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that Eric Robert Rudolph remains bound to the terms of his 2005 plea agreement in which he accepted multiple life sentences to escape the death penalty.
“Eric Rudolph is bound by the terms of his own bargain. He negotiated to spare his life, and in return he waived the right to collaterally attack his sentences in any post-conviction proceedings,” Judge Britt Grant wrote in the opinion.
Rudolph admitted to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other attacks in Georgia and Alabama. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of arson and of using a destructive device during a crime of violence.
Rudolph argued he was due a new sentence after a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which justices found that a statute providing enhanced penalties for using a firearm or deadly device during a “crime of violence” was unconstitutionally vague. The 11th Circuit rejected his claim.
The bombing during a musical show at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta on July 27, 1996, killed one person and injured dozens. The bomb exploded about 1:20 a.m. July 27, 1996, at the end of the first full week of the Summer Olympics, during musical performances held at Centennial Olympic Park. The bomb was contained in a backpack left near a music stage. Alice Hawthorne, a 44-year-old spectator from Albany, was killed by the blast.

The bombing at the New Woman All Women in Birmingham on Jan. 29, 1998, killed a Birmingham police officer and seriously wounded a clinic nurse.
Rudolph also set bombs outside a Georgia abortion clinic and the Otherside Lounge, a gay and lesbian nightclub in Atlanta.
The Eric Robert Rudolph case
Atlanta Journal-Constitution coverage of the bombings carried out by Eric Robert Rudolph and their aftermath.
From 1996: Centennial Olympic Park reopens after 1996 bombing
From 2016: 20 years later: Olympic park bombing brought terror close to home
From 2019: Daughter of Olympic bombing victim: ‘It was a terrible, terrible day’
From 2021: 25 years later: Two icons steadfast in how far city has come and discuss the bombing

