ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The federal authorities decided on Monday that Eric R. Rudolph would be tried first in Birmingham, Ala., where investigators say he bombed an abortion clinic, and not in Atlanta, where he is suspected of planting a deadly pipe bomb at the 1996 Olympic Games.
Rudolph, who had disappeared into the mountains of western North Carolina during his five years on the run, appeared in federal court on Monday in an orange jump suit and black flak jacket to face more than 20 charges, some of which carry the death penalty.
"Yes, your honor, yes, your honor," were his only words, quietly offered when he was asked if he wanted an attorney and if he indeed was who the police said he was.
The authorities said the evidence from the Birmingham bombing, which includes eyewitness accounts of the lean Rudolph walking away from the fatal blast, is stronger than the circumstantial evidence linking him to the attack at the Olympics.
After the 40-minute hearing Monday, his court-appointed lawyer, Sean Devereux, stood on the courthouse steps and said his client was not guilty.
"He's been portrayed as a zealot and fanatic," Devereux said. "He's not."
Devereux added that Rudolph, 36, had been polite and reflective and that he had kept a biography of Gandhi with him in the woods.
On Monday afternoon, Rudolph was flown to Birmingham, where he remains in a county jail.
"We expect that trial to be relatively short and straightforward," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in Washington.
After the Birmingham trial, Rudolph is expected to be moved to Atlanta "to face the more complicated trial involving the three bombings there," Ashcroft said. "Our approach is designed to provide the best opportunity to bring justice to all of the victims of the bombings," he added.
The case is being handled in federal court because Rudolph is accused of violating federal firearms laws and interfering with interstate commerce.