McVeigh weighs request for delay

Attorney says bomber to decide this week about postponement of June 11 execution date

Karen Abbott, News Staff Writer

Published May 30, 2001 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

Attorneys for Timothy McVeigh said Tuesday there is a "strong possibility" they will ask a judge this week to delay his June 11 execution, but that McVeigh still is weighing his final decision.

Various media reported Tuesday that the condemned Oklahoma City bomber had authorized his lawyers to draft legal paperwork seeking a delay.

"Tim will make a decision this week as to whether or not we can file something on his behalf," said Denver-based attorney Nathan Chambers.

Another McVeigh attorney, Rob Nigh of Tulsa, said in a statement to CNN, "Mr. McVeigh believes that the information that we have discovered is worthy of judicial review. We are optimistic that he will permit us to make a filing on his behalf."

If McVeigh does try for a delay, his lawyers likely will file legal paperwork Thursday or Friday before Denver U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch, Chambers said.

All four of McVeigh's court-appointed defense lawyers -- Chambers, Nigh, and Richard Burr and Christopher Tritico, both of Houston -- gathered in Tulsa during the Memorial Day weekend to discuss the case.

In Washington, D.C., U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Chris Watney said the government is prepared to defend McVeigh's conviction and death sentence.

She said U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft already has delayed McVeigh's execution once to let his lawyers review newly disclosed FBI evidence.

"He will not support another delay based on documents that cast no doubt about the surety of McVeigh's guilt," she said.

McVeigh's decision may be affected by the televised appearance Tuesday night of four FBI agents on the CBS program 60 Minutes II.

In a program transcript, the agents said they weren't surprised that the FBI failed to turn over evidence to McVeigh's defense lawyers. One agent, later fired by the agency, claimed the FBI may have ignored evidence he personally obtained that might have helped McVeigh's case.

The network quoted Nigh as saying, "That information should, at minimum, change the course of this case in the near future."

"These agents have indicated that there is at least a possibility of misconduct rising to the level of criminal misconduct in Tim McVeigh's case," Nigh told CBS. "The importance of this information cannot be overstated. . .I was absolutely overwhelmed."

Watney would not comment specifically about the agents' allegations. She said Ashcroft already has asked the Justice Department's inspector general to study the FBI's belated delivery of evidence to McVeigh's lawyers.

"The attorney general has expressed great concern about this matter and expects the inspector general to complete the review in a thorough and timely manner," she said.

Chambers said McVeigh's lawyers have seen information CBS obtained from the agents. "It's potentially very significant," he said.

He said he still doesn't believe FBI claims that it now has turned over all its evidence.

McVeigh is in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he originally was scheduled to die May 16 after he decided to drop his appeals.

Days before that execution date, Ashcroft postponed McVeigh's death by injection after shocking disclosures that the FBI had wrongly withheld evidence from McVeigh's defense lawyers before his 1997 Denver trial.

Contact Karen Abbott at (303) 892-5188 or abbottk@RockyMountainNews.com.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News