Eric Robert Rudolph is appealing his conviction for the deadly Birmingham abortion clinic and the Olympic bombings

As the nation focuses on the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion rights ruling in Roe v. Wade, the man convicted in the deadly bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic 24 years ago is asking to be released.

Eric Robert Rudolph, who is serving a life sentence in a super maximum federal prison for the deadly 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Birmingham abortion clinic bombings, asked a federal appeals court to void his plea deal and sentence.

Federal judges in Alabama and Georgia have denied Rudolph’s appeals over the past year, and Rudolph has filed a notice of appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. That court gave Rudolph’s attorneys from the Birmingham and Atlanta federal offices of public defenders until May 13 to file a brief outlining the basis for the convicted suicide bomber’s appeal.

Lawyers representing Rudolph had not responded to AL.com‘s request for comment before publishing this story. Federal prosecutors in Birmingham declined to comment on Friday as the case is on appeal.

Rudolph, now 55, pleaded guilty on April 13, 2005, to eight federal counts in Georgia. On the same day, he pleaded guilty in Alabama to two counts for the bombing at the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham. The pleas were binding with a waiver of appeal, according to court records. He was sentenced to two life terms in the Alabama case, as well as four life terms plus 120 years in the Georgia case.

He is serving his sentence at Florence Admax Penitentiary in Colorado, the most secure federal prison in the country.

The convictions stemmed from four bombings: the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing at Centennial Park in Atlanta, in which one person was killed and hundreds injured; the 1997 Northside Family Planning bombing in Sandy Springs, Georgia, which left several people injured; the 1997 bombing of The Otherside Lounge in Atlanta, which left several people injured; and the 1998 bombing of the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham.

Officer Robert “Sande” Sanderson, 34, was killed in the January 29, 1998 explosion in Birmingham. He moonlighted as a security guard at the New Woman, All Women Health Care Clinic. Nurse Emily Lyons, then 41, was seriously injured in the explosion, but survived.

Emily Lyons’ husband Jeff said AL.com Friday afternoon “you can appeal anything whether you win or not, that’s the other story.”

“If his conviction is overturned, that’s great,” said Jeff Lyons. “He was never charged with murder so it wouldn’t be a double sentence and if the conviction is overturned it’s not a double sentence because it’s as if the conviction hadn’t never took place. So if he wants to go back and face murder with the death penalty on the table, fine with me.

What Rudolph did was a federal offense, so he was never charged with murder in Alabama or Georgia, Jeff Lyons added. “So if he wants to go back and put the death penalty back on the table, good luck with that.”

After the Birmingham bombing, police quickly identified Rudolph as a suspect and the North Carolina man fled to Appalachia. A massive search ensued, but it wasn’t until May 2003 that he was captured foraging for food in a dumpster behind a business in Murphy, North Carolina.

In the two district court cases, Rudolph is asking for four of those life sentences to be overturned, then wants the court to “separate all of the sentences from the original judgment and reconsider the prison sentences for the remaining counts.” “, according to Georgia. judge’s decision on November 8, 2021. Rudolph argued that the sentences were part of a larger set of sentences and if more than one of the sentences are overturned, the set will not be enforceable. The US Attorney’s Office argued that the sentences are separate and can stand on their own, not just in a package.

Rudolph’s arguments in the lower court cases stemmed from a 2019 Supreme Court case that ruled that part of the felony statue was unconstitutionally vague, and therefore void. Under federal law, an aggravated sentence is provided for anyone found guilty of using, carrying, or possessing a firearm or explosive device in “connection with any crime of violence or drug trafficking.” The term “crime of violence” is further defined in two clauses, and one of those clauses is what SCOTUS overturned in June 2019. The convicted suicide bomber argued in the documents that arson cannot not be considered a “crime of violence” in the high court definition after the SCOTUS change.

According to the Alabama federal ordinance judge, Rudolph’s legal case is strong. But, Rudolph pleaded guilty in both cases, and that deal meant he couldn’t appeal.

“In another case, perhaps, it would be the end of the investigation, and the sentence for the offense…would be set aside…Here, however, the court must also ask whether, under the terms of its agreement of binding plea, Rudolph has waived his right to file this (case) motion in the first place,” Senior District Judge Lynwood Smith wrote in his order in July 2021.