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CNN Live Saturday
Tim McVeigh Prepares to Die
Aired June 09, 2001 - 13:02 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: Now to Terre Haute, Indiana, where Timothy McVeigh is scheduled to die in about 43 hours for the Oklahoma City bombing. Defense attorneys say, as the clock ticks toward his execution, McVeigh is in the process of letting go of life.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute with the latest for us -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Donna. Timothy McVeigh's lawyers remain on call to them but have not yet seen them this day. However, I just got off the phone with Robert Nigh, who is one of Timothy McVeigh's attorneys, as the hours grow shorter and shorter for the amount of time that Timothy McVeigh has to live.
Mr. Night told me that he just spent about a half-an-hour on the phone with his client, and if you don't mind I am going to refer to some notes I took as I was speaking with him. He said, in his words, that "Timothy McVeigh is doing very well." He said he was well prepared for death before the original execution date on May 16, and he is just as well prepared now.
He said that very soon, he is going to be calling his family, and "he's going to say his last good-byes." That's a direct quote. Mr. Nigh said that Timothy McVeigh is going to be giving his family his own condolences for what he has done, but he has not yet expressed sorrow for what happened in Oklahoma City. He said that Timothy McVeigh is visualizing his family as he mentally prepares himself to die, and that he said he is clearly not apprehensive about dying.
And he credited that to Timothy McVeigh's military training, during which time, he said, he had to be prepared as a soldier serving in the Gulf War that he could be killed at any time. And he said that he is calling upon that military training to put himself in the proper frame of mind. With that, we also spoke recently with one of McVeigh's other lawyers, Richard Burr, who talked about his client's staid state of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD BURR, MCVEIGH'S ATTORNEY: He is going through the process that a human being goes through when they know that they are going to die. He is letting go of life and saying his farewells to people that count to him, and I'm sure he is -- is meditating a lot. He's very -- he's introspective and thoughtful. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, the person who led the investigation against -- about Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing is FBI Agent Danny Defenbaugh, and of course, you recall he was the one in charge of all the documents ultimately that were not turned over to him and consequently were belatedly turned over to the defense team before trial.
He of course, understandably takes a very different view of the man who has been convicted of the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil, and here are his views of McVeigh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY DEFENBAUGH, FBI: I'm sure that he stills believes that there are a number of other groups or individuals of like mind who are going to carry on for him after he leaves, and that his execution may give him some type of martyrdom.
CANDIOTTI: Do you think he'll be successful?
DEFENBAUGH: No.
CANDIOTTI: Why not? You seem so sure.
DEFENBAUGH: And the reason why I'm sure is because a number of the individuals that I talked to who are in the militia movements -- and we're talking in some situations even good solid citizens of the United States, they just belong to the militias. Those individuals backed away from that as fast as they could because of the death of those children. I think that the death of all of those children put this terrorist event, this bombing, in a completely different perspective for a lot of people.
CANDIOTTI: That will prevent him from being regarded as a martyr?
DEFENBAUGH: I believe so. He's not a martyr, he's a cold- blooded killer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Timothy McVeigh was to have five witnesses present that he had chosen to be there to watch the execution. However, one of them will not be there, that is author Gore Vidal who was unable to make it here from Italy, apparently.
And I asked Robert Nigh about that, he said that Timothy McVeigh is very disappointed about that, but he will not be asking for someone to substitute on this for Mr. Vidal, because he realizes that there is simply not enough time to go through that process to get someone here. Back to you, Donna.
KELLEY: All right, Susan Candiotti in Terre Haute, thanks. The deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil happened in Oklahoma City, but another Oklahoma town also put under the spotlight by the bombing, and CNN's Ed Lavandera says that some folks in Perry, Oklahoma want out of the glare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): People in Perry, Oklahoma, have been looking forward to this day. It's not the news of Timothy McVeigh's pending execution they're excited about. They're cheering the special arrival of a 1946 vintage steam engine locomotive.
This moment illustrates how weary this town has become of the McVeigh story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is exciting. Timothy McVeigh is sadness.
LAVANDERA: With McVeigh headlines everywhere, his name doesn't show up much any more in the Perry "Daily Journal." Six years after McVeigh stepped into their lives, people here have moved on.
(on camera): On the day federal authorities came to pick up Timothy McVeigh, this courthouse was evacuated, and hundreds of people showed up here, which set the stage for one of the most famous images of this entire story.
(voice-over): It was in Perry, Oklahoma, that the world caught the first glimpse of McVeigh.
CRYSTAL THOMPSON, WITNESSED MCVEIGH IN PERRY: A lot of people were surprised that he was in our courthouse still, and they were booing him, calling him a baby-killer. They were -- they let him know he was not welcome.
LAVANDERA: Kerry Harjoe (ph) made the hour-long drive from Oklahoma City that day to see McVeigh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It brought a lot on this small town when he was here, I'm sure having someone who could commit such a crime to come into our -- this small community. It was kind of a scary feeling for the people who lived around here.
LAVANDERA: Kerry now works at a popular restaurant just across the street from the famous courthouse. The regulars, like Neils Anderson, who come here still can't believe Perry garnered so much attention.
NEILS ANDERSON, PERRY RESIDENT: No, no -- little old town like Perry, no. You couldn't believe it; you couldn't believe that could happen in Perry.
LAVANDERA: The picture of the state trooper who arrested McVeigh is on the wall, a local boy made national hero. It's hard for these folks to forget that day. ANDERSON: Everybody had benches, and they was covered from there plumb up there to the library, thick.
LAVANDERA: Perry, Oklahoma, wants McVeigh to go away so life can return to normal. They miss the time when a steam engine passing through town was the biggest news of the day.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Perry, Oklahoma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Perry, Oklahoma is about an hour up Interstate 35 from where we are right now. This is the Oklahoma City memorial center, and this is where several thousand people come every day to pay respects and mourn.
One other note: Governor Frank Keating who we spoke with just a few hours ago told us there are no special plans in the works to shut down any government buildings on Monday morning. He says things will go on as normal. Donna, back to you.
KELLEY: Ed, how about the folks who are coming in to watch on closed circuit TV? The family and friends of victims of the bombing, have they started to arrive? And is that all set up and ready to go?
LAVANDERA: Yes. That will happen at the Will Rogers World Airport at a federal transfer center. There, about 300 people are expected to show up there Monday morning, and of course, a lot of them say that this is the opportunity that they are looking for to bring closure to what happened here six years ago. And for some, you know, that is a process that could even take much longer than even after Monday morning -- Donna.
KELLEY: From Oklahoma City, Ed Lavandera, thanks.
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