By Alabama Public Radio
Birmingham, AL – Federal prosecutors who are preparing the case against accused abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph are now distancing themselves from a government expert. Forensic chemist Edward Bender has apparently admitted making jokes and comments ridiculing blacks, and now he won't be testifying in Rudolph's trial next year. Defense attorneys want notes taken by Bender and other government analysts. They're trying to discredit prosecution claims that scientific tests found traces of explosives linking Rudolph to the bombing. Rudolph has pleaded innocent to the charges. He's accused of setting the bomb that exploded outside the Birmingham clinic in 1998 and killed a police officer. Rudolph was arrested last year in North Carolina after more than five years as a fugitive. He's also accused of three bombings in Atlanta.