DenverChief
09-21-2004, 02:15 AM
(CNN) -- Lawyers for bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph asked a judge Monday to suppress evidence gathered during his arrest.
In making their argument, Rudolph's attorneys filed motions that said his capture was "the result of an illegal detention and arrest."
Rudolph had been on the run for more than five years when he was arrested by a rookie police officer behind a grocery store in Murphy, North Carolina, on May 31, 2003.
He had been the subject of an intensive manhunt and was wanted in connection with the bombings of a clinic where abortions are performed in Birmingham, Alabama, and a string of bombings in Atlanta, Georgia, including the blast that took place during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Centennial Olympic Park.
Murphy police Officer Jeff Postell spotted a man who attempted to hide himself behind some milk crates.
Postell ordered the man to lie on the ground. When he asked the man to identify himself, the man said his name was Jerry Wilson and that he was from Ohio.
At least one of the officers responding to a backup call from Postell thought the man looked like Rudolph, but he was not positively identified until after he was taken in to the local jail.
The defense argued that there was no probable cause to believe the man was committing a crime nor that he was a fugitive, and therefore Rudolph should not have been detained.
It wants any evidence gathered during that period suppressed.
The defense motion said the government had already agreed not to use any evidence gathered after Rudolph was identified, including evidence gathered from two campsites.
Rudolph told investigators the locations of those two campsites the day he was arrested. He did not meet with a defense attorney until two days after he was arrested.
There was no immediate response from the prosecution.
Rudolph faces the death penalty in his Birmingham trial. A police officer was killed by the bomb that went off outside the New Woman All Women Health Clinic the morning of January 29, 1998.
Monday, Rudolph's attorneys again filed motions in federal court arguing that the death penalty was unconstitutional and should not be an option in his trial.
Jury selection for Rudolph's Birmingham trial is scheduled to begin in March 2005.:spock: ROFL ROFL
In making their argument, Rudolph's attorneys filed motions that said his capture was "the result of an illegal detention and arrest."
Rudolph had been on the run for more than five years when he was arrested by a rookie police officer behind a grocery store in Murphy, North Carolina, on May 31, 2003.
He had been the subject of an intensive manhunt and was wanted in connection with the bombings of a clinic where abortions are performed in Birmingham, Alabama, and a string of bombings in Atlanta, Georgia, including the blast that took place during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Centennial Olympic Park.
Murphy police Officer Jeff Postell spotted a man who attempted to hide himself behind some milk crates.
Postell ordered the man to lie on the ground. When he asked the man to identify himself, the man said his name was Jerry Wilson and that he was from Ohio.
At least one of the officers responding to a backup call from Postell thought the man looked like Rudolph, but he was not positively identified until after he was taken in to the local jail.
The defense argued that there was no probable cause to believe the man was committing a crime nor that he was a fugitive, and therefore Rudolph should not have been detained.
It wants any evidence gathered during that period suppressed.
The defense motion said the government had already agreed not to use any evidence gathered after Rudolph was identified, including evidence gathered from two campsites.
Rudolph told investigators the locations of those two campsites the day he was arrested. He did not meet with a defense attorney until two days after he was arrested.
There was no immediate response from the prosecution.
Rudolph faces the death penalty in his Birmingham trial. A police officer was killed by the bomb that went off outside the New Woman All Women Health Clinic the morning of January 29, 1998.
Monday, Rudolph's attorneys again filed motions in federal court arguing that the death penalty was unconstitutional and should not be an option in his trial.
Jury selection for Rudolph's Birmingham trial is scheduled to begin in March 2005.:spock: ROFL ROFL