05/30/01: McVeigh, by Fri on Appeal

[Freakapotimus]

Tuesday May 29 11:31 PM ET

McVeigh to Decide by Friday on Execution Appeal
By Robert Boczkiewicz

DENVER (Reuters) - A decision will be made by Friday whether to ask a judge to postpone Timothy McVeigh's execution, a lawyer for the convicted Oklahoma City bomber said on Tuesday.

``If we file anything, it will be this week,'' attorney Nathan Chambers told Reuters.

McVeigh, 33, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 11 at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast left 168 people dead.

Chambers declined to give an update on McVeigh's intentions based on a defense review of previously undisclosed FBI reports of the bombing investigation. The existence of these thousands of reports prompted U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on May 11 to postpone McVeigh's first execution date, May 16.

Chambers and three other lawyers have been reviewing the documents, which Ashcroft said should have been turned over to the defense before the 1997 trials of McVeigh and convicted co-conspirator Terry Nichols.

Meanwhile, an ex-FBI agent assigned to the case told the CBS news program ``60 Minutes II'' on Tuesday night that information he had collected that would have been useful to the McVeigh defense was not turned over to his lawyers.

Rob Nigh, one of McVeigh's attorneys, said that information might change the course of the case.

INFORMATION COULD CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE CASE

Nigh told ``60 Minutes II'' that if the information provided by ex-agent Rick Ojeda was true, it ``should, at minimum, change the course of this case in the near future.''

Nigh said, ``An FBI agent who worked on the bombing prosecution has indicated ... that information beneficial to the defense was withheld. That would be in violation ... of (Federal trial Judge Richard Matsch's) order and it would be in violation of due process of law.

``If those statements are accurate, the verdict has no integrity and we cannot possibly proceed with an execution until we know ... The importance of this information cannot be overstated. I was absolutely overwhelmed.''

Deputy FBI Director Thomas Pickard said ``McVeigh's guilt in this horrendous act of terrorism remains unquestioned,'' adding that McVeigh and his lawyers had far greater access to government documents than they were legally entitled to in a normal criminal prosecution.

``After an exhaustive review, it remains clear that the documents that were not uploaded in the databases given to the defense contained no information that was material to the convictions or sentences,'' Pickard said in a statement.

He disputed the CBS report, and said records of Ojeda's interviews about the bombing were turned over to McVeigh's lawyers, although none of his reports was used in the trial.

Chambers said he spent the Memorial Day weekend working on the case.

Last Thursday, he and Nigh disputed Ashcroft's contention that the defense lawyers had been given enough time to review the documents to determine if they would help their client seek a new trial or a reduced sentence.

The attorney general said he would not grant a second stay of execution. In rebuttal, Chambers and Nigh said their client might ask a judge to order a postponement to give the attorneys more time to investigate and analyze data in the reports.

McVeigh could ask for relief from the judge who presided over his trial or from an appeals court.

On ``60 Minutes II,'' ex-FBI agent Ojeda said material he personally collected was not given to McVeigh's lawyers even though it could have helped the defense team. Three other agents also appeared on the show discussing evidence that was withheld.

[Low-Budget-Superhero]

It's about time...

[Low-Budget-Superhero]

At 5/30/01 11:42 AM, GameboyCC wrote: It's about time...

I heard that the execution will not be televised, which is a good thing. I've said it before that it is wrong to kill someone on the same TV you can't say fuck, shit, goddamn, or hash on! However, it will be broadcasted to close circut television to the people who lost family (Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents, and even Children) in the bomb. Besides, they've put off his execution long enough, this is a guy who murders kids! It don't get much lower than that!