McVeigh principals will discuss execution
Defense attorney, prosecutor to appear on ABC's '20/20'
Tribune-Star staff report
Timothy McVeigh prosecutor Joseph Hartzler tells Barbara Walters in his first primetime network interview that McVeigh's death sentence was "fair retribution for the loss that he caused, for the unbelievable carnage that he caused."
Also speaking to Walters on tonight's "20/20," McVeigh defense lawyer Rob Nigh says he opposes the death penalty in all cases, because "it doesn't accomplish anything. And it is a statement that killing, under certain circumstances, is OK."
The interviews will be part of a "20/20" special hour on the administration of executions in America, airing at 9 tonight on ABC, according to a news release from the network.
Hartzler thinks McVeigh's execution will serve as a deterrent to would-be terrorists. "I would hope that it will be enough to chill people from doing maniacal things," he says in the interview.
To those who say life imprisonment would have been a sufficient punishment, Hartzler says, "I don't think so. For him to continue to enjoy cable TV and to watch the news, and to see what his favorite sports team achieves I just think is unfair, and it's unfair to the memory of the people that he killed."
Nigh disagrees with Hartzler and the others who think the execution will deter future violence. "No absolutely not by definition a person willing to commit a terrorist act is willing to pay the ultimate price for it."
He tells Walters that he objects to the death penalty because "it's been demonstrated that innocent people wind up on death row. The second reason is because we have demonstrated that we cannot apply it fairly. We cannot determine who lives and dies without having a factor be racial bias."
McVeigh, says Nigh, wanted his execution televised because "he believes that if the government is going to kill people, it should be done publicly. It should be done with scrutiny -- and it should be done in the open."
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