Serial bomber Eric Rudolph was sentenced to two life terms in prison today for the deadly bombing of a women's clinic in Birmingham, Alabama in 1998. The life sentence without parole was part of a plea bargain that spared Rudolph from facing the death penalty.
Victims of the bombing and their families were permitted to testify before the sentencing took place. Those hurt by Rudolph's actions were still angry.
Felicia Sanderson, whose husband died in the explosion, said, 'I want to tell you there is no punishment in my opinion great enough for Eric Rudolph. When Eric Rudolph leaves this earth and has to face final judgment, I'm going to leave the final judgment in God's hand.'
'My son Nick lost the only father that he ever knew. I never forget the look on my son's face when I told him Sande was gone,' she said.
Another victim, Emily Lyons, a nurse who was disfigured in the bombing added, 'The full responsibility for this would have been the death sentence.'
Lyons later added, 'You want to see a monster, all you have to do is look in the mirror...It really doesn't matter what you say because I will go back to my home and you will go back to jail. The clinics in town will still be open, and abortion will still be legal.'
Rudolph used his pre-sentencing statement to lash out against abortion and attempted to justify his murderous actions.
'What they did was participate in the murder of 50 children a week,' he said. 'Abortion is murder, and because it is murder I believe deadly force is needed to stop it.'
'Children are disposed of at will,' he said in a long speech against abortion. 'The state is no longer the protector of the innocence.'
The director of the clinic, Diane Derzis told Rudolph, 'It gives me great delight to know you are going to spend the rest of your life sitting in an 8-by-12 box.'
Rudolph will be sentenced on additional charges for his role in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombings and for the bombing of a gay bar in Atlanta in 1997.
