Execution blues
City reluctantly thrust into world spotlight
By Zach Taylor
Tribune-Star
Stop by the Saratoga Restaurant most any lunch hour and you'll find owner George Azar busy cooking at the grill in his paper hat and apron or behind the cash register ringing up customers.
But lately, he's been spending more time in front of television cameras, answering questions from a steady stream of curious reporters about the upcoming execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
From Chicago to New York to Germany, Italy and England, reporters from around the globe want to know how this small city - home to the federal death row - is coping as host of one of the biggest news events in the world.
"It's unfortunate that Terre Haute has to get the attention because of the execution," said Azar, also a Terre Haute city councilman. "I think there's always going to be a partial stigma. I don't think we'll ever get away from being the city that executed Timothy McVeigh."
In many ways, McVeigh's planned execution at the federal prison here on May 16 has turned Terre Haute upside down. People try to carry on normally, but there is no escaping that things are decidedly different.
Anti-death penalty protesters march downtown. Schools and government offices have announced they will close the day of the execution for security reasons.
People are selling T-shirts with slogans such as "Final Justice" and "Hangin' Times: Die! Die! Die!" And thousands of people, 1,300 journalists among them, are expected to descend upon the city and the prison grounds starting this week.
Boo Lloyd, who owns the Crossroads Cafe at the corner of Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue, has been getting two to three television news crews a week stopping at her popular locals haunt.
Lloyd said she hopes Terre Haute - perhaps previously best known as the city where Larry Bird played college basketball - won't be forever branded as the place Timothy McVeigh was executed. "It's not Terre Haute that's executing McVeigh - it's the government," she said.
Chris Curley, an associate producer for Channel 4 Television in the United Kingdom, said the European media is interested in why McVeigh carried out his crime, why survivors want to watch him die, President Bush's stance on the death penalty and why America feels the need to execute its criminals.
"America executes its citizens in more ways than any other country in the world," Curley said. "Why does the supposed world's policeman feel that executing criminals is a deterrent when clearly this is not reflected in the amount of violent crime that takes place in the country?
"To some people in England, it just doesn't look very good."
Curley also said that since he knows little about Terre Haute, the execution is what he thinks of.
"Maybe it's a shame that we're not familiar with the place under other circumstances. If I get the chance to visit, hopefully it's a place I'd enjoy," he said. "I just don't know. At the moment, it's the place where they sell T-shirts as to whether Timothy McVeigh should die or not."
News reports have portrayed Terre Haute, rightly or wrongly, as a city gripped by death.
USA Today recently ran a story headlined, "As McVeigh's execution nears, frenzy envelopes Indiana town." The New York Times ran a piece under the headline, "A city consumed in plans for McVeigh's execution."
A poll conducted by Indiana State University showed nearly 43 percent of Terre Haute residents believe the McVeigh publicity will hurt the city's image.
And the media attention has yet to reach its zenith.
This week, reporters will begin arriving in force, turning the prison grounds into a virtual satellite city. The major networks plan to anchor their nightly news programs from the grounds of the prison.
"I just wish it was over with," said Loretta Johnson, who lives near the prison. "I think there's been way too much publicity that's been given to this man."
Johnson hopes the execution doesn't make Terre Haute look bad to the rest of the world, but she isn't certain that it won't.
"We have enough positive things in Terre Haute that people don't have to focus on McVeigh," she said. "If people think about it, it's something that has to be done. The prison has always been good to us - it's a good employer. But every city has got something they're not particularly proud of."
Thomas E. Norris, who has lived across from the prison on Indiana 63 for more than 30 years, said he's not worried about it.
Norris, who is renting out his yard for news trucks and plans to open a concession stand for the event, said that perhaps the publicity will make would-be criminals think twice before committing crimes.
Rod Henry, president of the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, said that since the execution is out of the city's control, the only thing to do is let people know about the good things Terre Haute has to offer.
Henry said the chamber has devoted a considerable amount of time to answering reporters' questions about the city and the execution.
"A lot of them have maybe only heard the name Terre Haute, so they're grasping. They have no idea what we're about," he said. "They don't realize that we're an education center. They don't realize that Terre Haute is an economic hub of the Wabash Valley."
"There's nothing we can do to offset the fact of what is happening - we are reluctant participants. What we can do, however, is put our community's best foot forward," Henry said.
Kim Merchant, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Michigan City, knows how hard it can be to shake the image of death. Michigan City is home to Indiana's death row and execution chamber.
"Whenever there is an execution, there are the protesters and the media," she said. "It's a fact of life that there is a state prison here, but we feel that it's one dimensional, and the community offers much more on a year-round basis."
Still, she said, "I would say that [the execution] is a common image that comes to mind when you think of Michigan City."
Outside the media hype, McVeigh's upcoming execution is affecting Terre Haute in other ways too.
In recent months, the execution has resulted in beefed up security throughout Terre Haute and around the penitentiary to ease any concerns about potential violence tied to McVeigh's execution.
Vigo County schools have closed for safety reasons and to free up officers who normally would patrol school grounds. Government buildings will be shut down too, hopefully eliminating them as possible targets of violence.
The debate over the death penalty has spilled into the streets as well.
Anti-death penalty protesters march the first Thursday of every month at the corner of Seventh and Cherry streets, hoping to keep the topic on peoples' minds. Drivers honk and wave or shout derogatory comments to show their support or disdain.
"As a person of faith, to have the [government] kill another person. I can't put that in the gospel message," said Jack Diel, a Terre Haute man armed with an "Abolish the Death Penalty" sign.
Thursday marked the first time this year that Diane Brentlinger protested the death penalty. But "this is a special month," she said, her "Execution is not the Solution" sign in hand.
Suzanne Carter, of the Terre Haute Abolition Network and chair of the Terre Haute chapter of Unitarian Universalists for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said capital punishment "is an issue that should not be hidden away. We want the debate on it to be public."
Carter also said she finds distasteful the efforts by some people to profit off the execution by such things as selling T-shirts.
Shirts bearing slogans both for and against the death penalty and McVeigh's execution are being sold in Terre Haute and on the Internet auction site eBay.
Jim Handlin, who's offering a shirt featuring a picture of a syringe and bearing the words "Hoosier Hospitality/ McVeigh/ Terre Haute May 16, 2000/ Final Justice," said he isn't really pushing the shirts, but if "anybody wants one, I've got it."
People obviously do want them. Handlin said the shirts are selling quickly - most for about $12. One of the shirts being auctioned on the Internet sold for $45, he said.
"I put 24 on eBay and they all went," he said. "I've got some more on there now. I'm getting some calls from local people and they're stopping by and picking them up."
He also sold some to a California radio station, where the shirts will be given out as prizes.
In the midst of it all, Henry, of the Chamber of Commerce, seemed to sum up many people's feelings. "We kind of just want this thing to get over so we can get back to normal," he said.
Back to Archived Stories Index