After failing twice in two days to delay his execution, convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh abruptly gave up his legal fight Thursday and declared he is ready to die.
The surprising twist to an unusual legal battle came moments after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said McVeigh’s attorneys “utterly failed to demonstrate substantial grounds” why the execution should not proceed as scheduled on Monday in Terre Haute, Ind.
About 45 minutes after the court’s ruling, three of McVeigh’s lawyers appeared outside the Byron White United States Courthouse and announced that he would not take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, as had been expected.
“He does not want to proceed any further,” said a somber Robert Nigh, McVeigh’s lead attorney, after talking to McVeigh by telephone. “He has prepared himself to die.”
Nigh, choking with emotion, said he and his colleagues urged McVeigh to “keep pressing his legal options” but said McVeigh’s “resolve was clear.”
“He has family and friends that he must say his goodbyes to,” Nigh said.
The attorney said he and McVeigh discussed the possibility of seeking clemency from President Bush but said McVeigh dismissed that option, calling it “a meaningless gesture.”
McVeigh, a 33-year-old Persian Gulf war veteran, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 a.m. Monday in Terre Haute’s federal penitentiary. Hundreds of survivors of the bombing and relatives of victims are expected to watch via closed-circuit television in Oklahoma City.
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft called the court’s decision “a ruling in favor of justice.”
“Timothy McVeigh is responsible for the brutal murder of 168 people, including 19 children, and he will now be brought to justice,” Ashcroft said. “For victims who have endured additional pain as a result of this last month of uncertainty, I am grateful this process will soon be over.”
Victim’s father relieved
Paul Howell, whose daughter died in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, said he was relieved to hear McVeigh would not appeal.
“It’s kind of like a burden lifted off my shoulders,” said Howell, one of 10 victims’ relatives and survivors chosen by lottery to watch the execution in Terre Haute. “I’m going to start preparing myself mentally for it now.”
In Oklahoma City, Kay Fulton said she had expected to have at least one more month to prepare to watch the execution of the man who killed her brother, 42-year-old Customs agent Paul Ice.
“In the last month and the last couple of days, a big heavy cloud is hanging over my head,” Fulton said. “I tend to lose focus on what is important. The importance is Paul Ice and the other 167 victims. Once McVeigh the monster is out of the picture, I can focus on that.”
Legal experts and McVeigh’s attorneys had expected the case to go to the Supreme Court.
McVeigh had been prepared to die last month, having waived his right to further appeals.
But less than a week before his May 16 execution date, the FBI revealed that it had failed to provide thousands of pages of evidence to the defense before and during the 1997 trial.
The disclosure led Ashcroft to postpone the execution until Monday, giving McVeigh and his lawyers a chance to review the documents.
McVeigh later authorized the attorneys to request another stay from U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, who presided over the original trial.
Attorneys alleged fraud
On Wednesday, McVeigh’s attorneys argued before Matsch that the evidence could show the involvement of other people in the 1995 bombing besides McVeigh and convicted conspirator Terry Nichols. They accused the government of deliberately withholding evidence and committing a fraud on the court.
The Justice Department denied the allegations and argued that nothing in the new documents would alter McVeigh’s guilt. The execution, the government said, should not be delayed.
Matsch, a no-nonsense veteran of the bench who admitted in court that he was furious over the FBI’s bungling, refused to grant a stay after a 90-minute hearing, setting the stage for Thursday’s drama.
In filings with the appeals court, the McVeigh team again pleaded for more time, arguing that Matsch “succumbed to the human tragedy of this case and lost sight of the demands of fairness.”
In addition, McVeigh’s attorneys argued Matsch used the wrong legal standard when ruling that Monday’s execution could proceed, saying Matsch “did not venture an opinion as to whether there were enough questions raised by the evidence to warrant a stay and further investigation.”
In the defense brief, the lawyers said the case “tests us as people. … It is extremely hard not to be improperly influenced by the immense suffering and agony at the heart of this case.”
Though McVeigh did not argue the withheld evidence would change the guilty verdicts for murder, his lawyers contended he was “denied due process when the prosecution withheld evidence concerning participation by others.”
The defense also sprinkled filings with suggestions that the bombing was the result of a broader conspiracy and a possible government cover-up, despite McVeigh’s admissions to reporters that he acted alone. But neither Matsch nor the appellate court found those claims convincing.
After deliberating six hours, the appellate panel said there was no basis upon which to grant McVeigh’s motion for a stay of execution.
Questions may linger
McVeigh’s execution Monday will give a stamp of finality to the biggest terrorist incident on U.S. soil, but it will likely leave unanswered questions about the possible role of others in the bombing.
“The case has been a test of our system,” said Richard Burr, one of McVeigh’s lawyers. “In the lifetimes of all of us, today there has never been a case that has tested the fairness of a judicial system like this one, and we have not passed that test very well.”
Burr said the “backbone of law in this country is to be fair and just with people who do the worst things, and we have not done that with Timothy McVeigh.”
That claim is disputed by others, who argue McVeigh was given every opportunity in the legal system.
They said McVeigh not only hurt himself by not cooperating fully with his legal counsel but also damaged his own cause by admitting his guilt in a book published earlier this year.
“Whether he is executed or . . . not Monday morning, it’s not going to change my life one way or another,” said Greg Leasure, whose sister was killed in the bombing. “It is not going to give me gratification or bring a peace because I already have peace in my life.”
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For archived Tribune coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and its aftermath, go to chicagotribune.com/go/bombing
