By Alabama Public Radio
Huntsville, AL – A hearing will begin Tuesday in Huntsville to determine where Eric Robert Rudolph should stand trial. He's accused of the 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham that killed an off-duty police officer and severely injured a nurse. The trial is set to begin August second in Birmingham, but defense attorneys have asked a judge to move the case out of north Alabama. Rudolph's lawyers say surveys suggest years of publicity surrounding the bombing and the high-profile search for Rudolph have made it nearly impossible to find an impartial jury in the Birmingham area. Prosecutors oppose changing locations. They say the media coverage of the bombing was not enough to taint the jury pool. They also say the five years that passed between the bombing and Rudolph's arrest last year in North Carolina will make it easier to find an impartial jury.