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CNN Live Saturday

McVeigh May Challenge Death Penalty

Aired May 12, 2001 - 12:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: McVeigh's legal journey largely begins and possibly ends in Denver. There, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the bombing, and it is there in Denver that he would file any future appeals. According to his lawyers, that could include a legal challenge to his death sentence.

CNN's Gina London joins us from Denver with the latest. Hi, Gina.

GINA LONDON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you. Well, that's exactly right. One of the things that is so interesting is that what we have is here the building behind me, that is the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and if some sort of an appeal from the defense team for McVeigh is filed, it could very likely wind up here.

Now, we are hearing a lot of different things from the legal community. Of course, you just talked to Jeralyn Merritt, his former defense attorney, and she has indicated -- and also is what we are hearing -- that it's less likely, perhaps, for a direct appeal but possibly more of an extension or a continued delay of the execution to try to find out precisely what is in all of these 500 documents that were suddenly returned to them -- or given, rather, to them by the FBI on Thursday.

Now again, to reiterate, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is here in Denver, you see that by me. Also, of course, defense attorney Nathan Chambers, one of his two current defense attorneys, has his offices here, and that's where, in his office, he has all of those 3,000 pages of documents, going through those formal witness statements, that what he has.

And so, that's what they are going through. They are going to try to determine what was said, if it was true, do they need to get an investigator to try to find out something different, perhaps, from what was written in these FBI reports. So, they may ask for a little more time, but as you have heard earlier from your former guest, that it is unlikely that they will actually request life as opposed to the death sentence.

KELLEY: All right, Gina London from Denver. Thanks very much.

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