ATLANTA (CN) — A man who killed two people and injured hundreds in a string of bombings in Atlanta and Birmingham, Alabama, throughout the late 1990s cannot circumvent the terms of his guilty plea to challenge his multiple life sentences, a unanimous 11th Circuit panel ruled Monday.
An appellate waiver signed by Eric Robert Rudolph as part of his 2005 guilty plea to numerous crimes — including those stemming from his bombing of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics — bars him from pursuing two challenges to his sentence, U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant wrote in a 24-page opinion.
The three-judge panel was unmoved by Rudolph’s claim that his arson offenses were no longer crimes of violence in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling in United States v. Davis. The high court tossed out sentencing rules in that case that it found relied on an unconstitutionally vague definition of the term “crime of violence.”
The new Supreme Court precedent does not matter in Rudolph’s case because his motions are the exact kind of “collateral attacks” on his sentences forbidden by his plea deal, Grant found.
“Eric Rudolph is bound by the terms of his own bargain,” Grant, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote. “He negotiated to spare his life, and in return he waived the right to collaterally attack his sentences in any post-conviction proceedings. We will not disrupt that agreement.”
Rudolph’s bombing of the Olympic games killed one woman, led to the heart attack death of one man and seriously injured more than 100 others.
He was also responsible for the bombings of a Georgia abortion clinic, a Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic and an Atlanta lesbian bar. A police officer was killed in the Birmingham explosion and a nurse was permanently injured.
Rudolph pleaded guilty after his capture and 2003 arrest to multiple charges, including arson and use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence.
As part of his plea deal, the government agreed not to seek the death penalty and Rudolph waived his right to appeal his conviction and sentence. He also waived his right to “collaterally attack” his sentence in any post-conviction proceeding.
Rudolph was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences followed by 120 years imprisonment.
He held up his end of the bargain until June 2020, when he filed two habeas corpus petitions to vacate portions of his sentences.
Federal courts in Alabama and Georgia rejected Rudolph’s motions. The Eleventh Circuit panel heard arguments in the case in August.
The panel on Monday was unconvinced by Rudolph’s attempts to position his appeals as challenges to his convictions rather than attacks on his sentences.
Rudolph filed his petitions under a federal habeas corpus law that is explicitly mentioned as a non-starter in the waiver. The law, Title 28 U.S.C. §2253, “fundamentally remains a procedure for prisoners to challenge their sentences,” Grant wrote.
“The text of [the statute] points to one conclusion. These motions are collateral attacks on a movant’s sentence — the exact thing that Rudolph waived the right to do,” Grant wrote.
The panel also rejected as “preposterous” Rudolph’s argument that his arson convictions do not meet the categorical definition of a crime of violence under the law and that he is “actually innocent” of using an explosive device during and in relation to a crime of violence.
An attorney for Rudolph did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.
U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher, a fellow Trump appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, a Bill Clinton appointee, joined Grant's opinion.
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