<p>The first trial of alleged serial bomber Eric Rudolph will focus on a trail of clues between Birmingham and North Carolina, but evidence from three Atlanta-area bombings is at the center of a dispute in the Alabama case.</p><p>In what seems a reversal of roles, prosecutors say they don't plan to tell Birmingham jurors about the Atlanta blasts in which Rudolph is charged, including the deadly 1996 Olympics bombing, but defense lawyers are seeking the Atlanta evidence for possible use in his Birmingham trial.</p><p>"The government doesn't plan to introduce evidence from the Atlanta bombing because it is irrelevant in our case in Birmingham," said U.S. Attorney Alice Martin.</p><p>The defense, however, says the Atlanta evidence might show that Rudolph has been falsely depicted as the Atlanta bomber and could "bolster an argument of lingering doubt on the Birmingham offenses."</p><p>A magistrate judge has turned down a defense request for more evidence about the Atlanta bombings, including the Olympics blast that killed a woman and injured dozens more. Rudolph's lawyers are asking a district judge to overrule the decision and make prosecutors hand over more information.</p><p>A defense move to include evidence about the Atlanta cases in Alabama could be a dangerous tactic, said former federal prosecutor Don Cochran.</p><p>"You run the risk that jurors who were unconvinced on the Birmingham stuff would be pushed over the edge by the Atlanta stuff," said Cochran, who now teaches law at Samford University. On the other hand, he said, the defense may want nothing more than to see all the evidence it can, particularly since Rudolph will stand trial later in Atlanta.</p><p>The stakes are high: Rudolph, 38, could be sentenced to death if convicted on a federal capital charge in the Birmingham bombing.</p><p>Jury selection is set to begin March 23 in Rudolph's federal trial in Birmingham for a bombing that killed a police officer and critically injured a nurse outside an abortion clinic on Jan. 29, 1998. The blast followed a series of five explosions at three sites in Atlanta in 1996 and 1997: Olympic park, a lesbian bar and a building that housed an abortion clinic.</p><p>Rudolph was captured in Murphy, N.C., in May 2003 after more than five years as a fugitive. He pleaded not guilty and is jailed without bond.</p><p>The government for months has said it did not plan to use any evidence about the Atlanta bombings during the Birmingham trial, contending agents collected plenty of evidence linking him to the clinic blast. Right after Rudolph's capture, Attorney General John Ashcroft even predicted the Alabama trial would be "relatively short and straightforward."</p><p>But the defense contends the government could still decide to use evidence from Atlanta in Birmingham, so it is seeking additional information about the Atlanta bombings. Also, the defense claims, it could use such evidence to prove Rudolph didn't commit the Atlanta bombings and, by turn, couldn't have committed the one in Birmingham.</p><p>One way or another, Rudolph's lawyers contend they must do something to counter years of media reports linking Rudolph with the bombings both in Alabama and Georgia, where he will stand trial later.</p><p>"The reality is that the jury will not be deciding the case in a vacuum and that the jurors will have had the prior experience of being exposed to the government's media campaign about the Atlanta offenses," defense attorneys said in a document filed last week.</p><p>Should Rudolph be convicted, they say the evidence could help them show that he doesn't have a history of crime _ an argument that, if successful, could help keep him off death row.</p><p>Prosecutors said the defense should not be allowed to bring Atlanta evidence into the Birmingham trial but warned that they would be ready just in case.</p><p>"The government could not be expected to simply stand by and watch as the defense constructed a straw house only to blow it down," prosecutors said in court papers.</p>
