Attorneys allege 'fraud upon the court'
McVeigh asks for delay
'Decision not easy' for McVeigh, attorney says
By Zach Taylor and Karin Grunden
Tribune-Star
Tribune-Star photo/Bob Poynter
Alleging that crucial evidence might have been intentionally destroyed or never documented, Timothy McVeigh's attorneys on Thursday filed a petition to delay his execution for the Oklahoma City bombing.
The attorneys said withholding evidence amounts to a "fraud upon the court" and should void any judgment in McVeigh's case.
After meeting with his attorneys at the federal prison in Terre Haute, McVeigh, who is scheduled to die June 11, authorized his legal team to seek the stay of execution, his lawyer Rob Nigh said.
McVeigh is "convinced that the Department of Justice and FBI will not otherwise be held to account unless he takes this action," Nigh said. "It is Mr. McVeigh's belief that this action is necessary in order to promote integrity in the criminal justice system."
"This decision was not easy for Mr. McVeigh," Nigh said. "He had prepared to die."
Despite the Justice Department's assertion that all documents pertinent to the Oklahoma City bombing investigation have been turned over to the defense, McVeigh attorney Richard Burr said he thinks the FBI is still withholding evidence.
The petition, filed before trial judge Richard Matsch in Denver, further alleges that some evidence may have been "intentionally destroyed or not documented."
Burr said the FBI investigated and talked to people who said they gave information to the bureau that the lawyers never saw. FBI records also show important information about other suspects was given to agents but was never followed up on, he said.
It is "quite clear to us that people have been investigated carefully by the FBI and they have never produced one piece of paper concerning those people. And we must get to the bottom of this," Burr said.
Justice Department officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.
In December, McVeigh, who has publicly confessed to the bombing, asked to end his appeals and for an execution date to be set.
But less than a week before his original May 16 execution date, the FBI revealed it had failed to turn over to defense attorneys some 4,000 pages of witness interviews and other documents related to the bombing investigation.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft postponed the execution to give attorneys time to review the documents. But he said they contain no information that would clear McVeigh and opposes any further delay in the execution.
Matsch's law clerk, James Manspeaker, said he did not know when Matsch would rule on the petition.
The petition says the government improperly "withheld witness statements that should have been produced prior to the time of trial. More importantly, the government withheld ... material including witness statements that had been specifically identified and sought prior to trial by Mr. McVeigh's attorneys."
The petition also cites statements from four former FBI agents as reasons to believe the FBI is still withholding evidence.
In a letter to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, dated March 7, 2000, one of those agents, Rick Ojeda, wrote that "exculpatory evidence was ignored and not documented," including evidence he personally gathered, the petition says.
Burr said that by withholding "massive numbers of documents from the defense and continuing to withhold numbers of documents from the defense" the government has perpetrated a fraud upon the court. In that case, "any judgment the court makes is void," Burr said.
Meanwhile, victims of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people said they believe McVeigh is toying with the system.
"I really believe in my mind he's trying to anger people. He's just going to continue his terrorism from prison as long as he can, and he's made a good start of it today," said Jim Denny, whose two children were injured in the blast.
"It just seems amazing to me that the same system Tim McVeigh hates so much, he uses to maximize his efforts," Denny said. "But, and I say this without any anger, I think justice will prevail in the end."
McVeigh told his lawyers he realizes the impact his decision may have on his family, the victims and the Terre Haute community. But "his decision in no way stems from a desire to cause these people any additional pain or trauma," Nigh said.
Jim Cross, a spokesman for the Terre Haute prison, home to the federal government's only death row, said that despite the recent developments, plans for McVeigh's execution are continuing.
"Until we hear official word from the Department of Justice or the courts, we will proceed," he said.
If McVeigh's execution is postponed, the next death-row inmate set for execution is convicted killer Juan Raul Garza, on June 19. It has been 38 years since the federal government has put a criminal to death.
Back to Archived Stories Index