Comments on: Eric Rudolph Cops Plea for Life Sentence

By: Diggers Realm

Diggers Realm — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:13:14 +0000

Eric Robert Rudolph, Olympic Bomber, To Plead Guilty To Avoid Death Penalty
Eric Robert Rudolph has signed an agreement to plead guilty to 4 bombings and to disclose the location of 250 Lbs. of buried dynamite in order to avoid the death penalty. This guy is the worst when it comes to...

By: Diggers Realm

Diggers Realm — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:09:05 +0000

By: kappiy

kappiy — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 16:45:32 +0000

The description of Rudolph as a "serial murderer" is inaccurate. Although the prosecutors have not pursued Rudolph's motives, given his political alliances and his bombing targets, it is more reasonable to think of him as a terrorist in the vein as McVeigh or Bin Laden. In fact Attorney General Gonzalez described Rudolph's bombings as terrorist attacks on Friday. It is interesting to compare Rudolph's treatment with that of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui--who is alleged to have participated in the 9/11 attacks in some way (even though he was in jail at the time and the government has not produced any evidence to support their contention). I believe that the government is still seeking the death penalty for Moussaoui--although the case is on appeal right now. If the government is willing to plea bargain with terrorists, one would think that Moussaoui would be more valuable in terms of national security. The plea in the Rudolph case is pretty paltry--he's just telling the government where he is stashed some dynamite While it is probably good to get dyamite off the streets, it doesn't do mch to stop terrorist networks.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 01:08:42 +0000

We could, er, send him to be interrogated by the Saudis for a decade or so as part of his life sentence...

By: Kathy K

Kathy K — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 00:44:58 +0000

Oh, I dunno... the thought of him spending the rest of his life in jail is kinda nice.

I've often thought that the death penalty is far kinder than life as a prisoner.

By: Ramblings' Journal

Ramblings' Journal — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 00:11:05 +0000

Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to all charges in exchange for life instead of death
Eric Robert Rudolph, accused of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing nine years ago, along with two other bombings in metro Atlanta and one in Birmingham, has agreed to plead guilty to all the charges against him in exchange for a...

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:31:36 +0000

That's only true, though, because of the endless string of appeals we allow. It would be much cheaper if we forceed them to consolidate all their appeals and they only got one shot through the system.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:21:18 +0000

You know it's quite a bit cheaper to keep someone in jail for the rest of his life than it is to kill him?

Not that you made that point. I just thought that was interesting when I learned it.