Emily Lyons

Lyons was born in 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. She received a degree in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, with a focus on reproductive health, after which she worked in various nursing fields and locations, and taught nursing at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.^[1] At the time of the bombing, she was director of nursing at the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham, having originally answered an advertisement for a part-time nurse.^[2]

The morning of January 29, 1998, Lyons was approaching the clinic, when Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer and security guard, bent to inspect an unfamiliar potted plant in the front yard. The flowerpot contained a remote-controlled nail bomb,^[3][4] which exploded and killed Sanderson immediately. Lyons was severely injured: one eye was destroyed and the other damaged, her hand was mangled, a hole was torn in her abdomen that necessitated the removal of 10 inches of her intestines, and most of the flesh was blown off her legs and hand.^[5][6] She was badly burned, her leg was shattered, and shrapnel and nails are permanently buried in her body.^[2] Lyons spent eight weeks in the hospital^[7] and has had over twenty surgeries; even years after the blast, she continued using a wheelchair and had poor hearing and eyesight.^[6][8] She does not remember the blast.^[9]

Lyons and her husband, Jeff, were the focus of media attention after Rudolph's capture: Lyons expressed a hope of speaking to him and letting him know that he "failed."^[10][11] Lyons initially wanted Rudolph to receive life imprisonment or the death penalty,^[7][12] but during the trial, spoke to news sources about her wish that he receive the death penalty^[10] and strongly objected to a plea deal.^[13] When Rudolph pleaded guilty and received life in prison, Lyons was "extremely disappointed" that he would not be put to death, but noted that other lives could be saved because Rudolph had revealed where he had hidden explosives, as part of his plea deal.^[14]