Judy Clarke to defend accused serial bomber

Judy Clarke, the former federal defender for Eastern Washington and Idaho, has been named as lead defense attorney for accused serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph.

He is scheduled to stand trial next year in Birmingham, Ala., on charges related to the fatal bombing of an abortion clinic in that city in January 1998.

If convicted, he faces a possible death penalty.

Rudolph, an anti-government extremist, also is charged in the fatal bombing at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and a pair of bombings there the following year.

Clarke, who was federal defender in Spokane from 1992 to June 2002, has developed a national reputation for her expertise representing defendants in death penalty cases.

She was appointed lead counsel on Monday after defense attorney Richard Jaffe, another death penalty specialist, was granted permission by a federal judge to withdraw from the case.

Jaffe cited no reason for his withdrawal, according to the Associated Press.

Bill Proctor, the lead investigator for the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho, has been assigned to work with Clarke and the Rudolph defense team, said Roger Peven, executive director for the federal defenders.

While based in Spokane, Clarke accepted temporary assignments and defended Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and assisted in the defense of Susan Smith, convicted in the drowning deaths of her two sons in South Carolina.

Clarke also served as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 1997.

Clarke’s husband, Speedy Rice, taught at Gonzaga Law School while the couple lived in Spokane.

Rice currently is a visiting instructor at a law school in Birmingham, England.