Execution 7 a.m. Monday
No stay for McVeigh
Decision took many by surprise
By Karin Grunden
Tribune-Star
On the grounds of the federal prison in Terre Haute, Mike Vesci kept his eyes on the television Wednesday afternoon, waiting for word on whether Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's Monday execution would be delayed.
The news wasn't what he expected.
In a move that surprised many legal experts and once again turned the nation's attention to Terre Haute, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch denied McVeigh's request for a stay.
"I was surprised," said Vesci, a graduate student at Indiana State University who is working as a runner for CNN.
Vesci, who watched the announcement on a TV inside the CNN trailer, said he thought Matsch would grant a stay.
Instead, the judge ruled that "there is no good cause to delay the execution," sending McVeigh's attorneys scrambling to file a last-minute appeal.
Now, Vesci said, he doesn't know what to think. "Nobody knows," he said. "We shall see."
The judge's ruling surprised many Terre Haute residents still recovering from the frenzy surrounding McVeigh's original May 16 execution date, which was put off at the last minute after the FBI revealed it had failed to disclose to the defense more than 4,000 pages of evidence.
Now it will all start over -- hordes of reporters descending on the city, the concerns about security and traffic and the notoriety of being the city that is home to the federal government's only death chamber.
"We have no control over it," said Rod Henry, president of the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce.
"Frankly there is never going to be a good time for a federal event of this kind," said Henry, who would rather be talking about the Miss Indiana pageant, which coincides with the execution.
As soon as the judge made his ruling, the phones at Terre Haute hotels started ringing.
The Knights Inn, which had only nine rooms available for Sunday, quickly filled up with reservations from "reporters from around the United States," said Samantha Griffin, a staff member at the motel.
Reporters from around the world are expected to converge on Terre Haute for the execution, assuming it goes off as planned, creating a virtual media city outside the prison.
And though McVeigh's attorneys are appealing the judge's ruling, staff at the prison, along with police and protest organizers, are proceeding as if the lethal injection will happen as scheduled at 7 a.m. Monday.
Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Mary Beth Cully issued passes to a few of the nearly 1,400 media who had signed up to cover the execution in May. Since that time, more than 100 additional reporters have requested passes, Cully said.
Activists planning to protest the execution spent Wednesday "just picking up where we left off," said Suzanne Carter, co-founder of the Terre Haute Abolition Network, a grassroots anti-death penalty organization.
After the news broke Wednesday, she tried to reach other death-penalty opponents who may travel to Terre Haute to protest McVeigh's execution. Carter said she "made the mistake of listening to all these experts" who believed Matsch would issue a stay.
Meanwhile, police agencies were poised to put the same plans in place that were used before McVeigh's original execution date.
Starting Sunday, the Terre Haute Police Department will begin a 12-hour work schedule, which will run through Monday, Assistant Chief Jeff Trotter said.
Preparing emotionally has been more difficult this time, Trotter said. "We've already been through the emotional roller coaster," he said.
On the penitentiary grounds, the set-up was beginning once again but with a bit less fervor than a month ago.
"The first time around it was hopping," said Aaron Matheny, an ISU student from Shelburn who helped set up tents last month and again on Wednesday. This time, "everybody lost momentum," Matheny said.
Complete Outdoor Rental & Equipment was asked to set up less than half the number of tents they had in preparation for McVeigh's original execution date.
The media organizations requesting the tents didn't want to lose their money if Monday's execution is postponed, said Scott Daffron, assistant rental manager for the company.
While Daffron's staff worked on setting up tents, Dave Hensley, local manager for Verizon, re-tested the nearly 600 phone lines that will feed all the major media networks.
"We have to be ready," he said. "It's been frustrating, not knowing what's going to happen and still not knowing."
Tina Halstead remained more frustrated with the situation at the pizza parlor and sub shop she manages about a mile north of the prison.
All the hype over the execution has hurt business at Little Cee's Pizza and Subs, Halstead said. Regular customers, tired of the traffic on Indiana 63 and miffed at media staked out near the restaurant, have avoided the eatery in recent days.
"I just want it to be over with so we can resume with normal business," Halstead said.
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