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CNN Saturday Morning News

Prosecution Rests Case in Birmingham Church Bombing Trial

Aired May 18, 2002 - 08:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on that top story, the Birmingham church bombing trial. The prosecution rests its case and now it's the defense team's turn in the trial of Bobby Cherry.

CNN's Brian Cabell is covering the courtroom proceedings.

He joins us live from Birmingham with a preview -- good morning, Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

It took the prosecution four days to present its case. Now the defense will get its turn in a couple of hours. We've been told the defense will probably take a couple of days, which means the jury could get this case probably some time by midweek next week.

The picture of Bobby Frank Cherry that emerges after a week of testimony here is of a former Ku Klux Klansman who, if he didn't hate black people, he certainly hated desegregation back in the early 1960s. He is a man who frequently visited with a couple of convicted bombers, Bob Chambliss and Tommy Blanton. He also talked frequently with the FBI over the last couple of decades about his hatred for blacks, about his knowledge of bombs. But he also denied a number of times that he was involved in the 1963 church bombing.

On the stand yesterday, Teresa Stacy, his granddaughter, his estranged granddaughter, who said that he bragged back in about 1985 of his involvement with the bombing. But defense attorneys pointed out that she had problems with alcoholism, also problems with drugs and also suggested that maybe she was making these revelations because she wanted publicity.

Now, the last person on the stand yesterday was Sarah Collins Rudolph, the sister of one of the four victims. She was in the room the morning the bomb went off back in 1963. She herself was blinded. She says she heard a loud noise, then she felt some glass in her eyes, on her chest. And then she said at the very end she called out, "Addie, Addie," her sister's name, but she heard no response.

The prosecutor in this case, Doug Jones, concedes after four days of testimony this is a case that is strictly circumstantial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CABELL: But nobody actually puts him there at the scene. No one actually stood up and said I saw him drive away or I saw him put it there. Does that affect the case when you're sort of relying on associations with these other bombers?

DOUG JONES, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: I don't, no one has ever said we've relied on an eyewitness to this bombing. We didn't rely on an eyewitness in the Chambliss case. We didn't rely on an eyewitness in the Blanton case. You don't always have eyewitnesses to a crime and we didn't have anybody there. We didn't, we don't feel like we need anybody that was an actual eyewitness. If that was the case, it'd be tough to convict a lot of these, a lot of homicide cases around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: Cherry, who's 71 years old, almost 72, has appeared mostly alert throughout this first week of testimony. It was suggested earlier that perhaps he's suffering from dementia. He has not been talking much, however, not to his attorneys, not to anybody else. In all likelihood he will not testify in this case.

If he's convicted, he faces life in prison -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Brian Cabell in Birmingham, thank you very much.

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