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CNN Live Saturday
Supreme Court May Hear Request to Have McVeigh's Execution Videotaped
Aired June 09, 2001 - 16:00 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: We begin with a renewed request to videotape Timothy McVeigh's execution. If the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the appeal, Monday's execution could be delayed. For more on this developing story, we turn to CNN's Susan Candiotti in Terre Haute, Indiana, the site of the execution -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Donna. We have reaction to all of this from the attorney representing Timothy McVeigh. But first to remind you that the Supreme Court is currently considering an attempt to block the execution of Timothy McVeigh, this because of the work of a lawyer representing a Pennsylvania man who is going to be on trial for murder, and he wants to videotape the execution of McVeigh on Monday morning for possible use in his trial, if trial should come to a penalty phase. The idea being, in the defendant's words, "because he wants to show that capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment."
Well, moments ago, this reaction from Robert Nigh who represents Timothy McVeigh on death row, and that is he said, quote: "Tim wouldn't want that to happen." In other words, he would not want to block the execution. He says that McVeigh certainly wants the procedure, the execution to come before public scrutiny. However, he said, if he wasn't willing to have us appeal his rejection of a stay of execution to the U.S. Supreme Court, he does not want us to try to favor this latest attempt by the man representing this Pennsylvania murder suspect to try to block the execution. He said that McVeigh is ready to die and is prepared to do so at this time.
Now, moving on, as we approach Timothy McVeigh's execution on Monday morning here in Terre Haute, Indiana, we remember what led to this day, the bombing attack, the loss of 168 lives in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history on U.S. soil, and we thought back about what led up to the arrest of Timothy McVeigh. It involved a lot of hard work on the part of the FBI, an intensive investigation, and also a bit of luck.
Here is what we call cracking the case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): On the morning of the bombing, Bertha Nichols drove downtown to meet her husband at the apartment house where he worked. That's her car pulling up, caught on the building camera. As she waited, a Ryder truck stopped across the street.
BERTHA NICHOLS, BOMBING WITNESS: I do somehow remember thinking, oh, somebody must be moving.
CANDIOTTI: It was Timothy McVeigh, pausing to light the fuse that would snuff out 168 lives.
B. NICHOLS: Little did I know, I parked right across the street from him.
CANDIOTTI: The truck moved on. Mrs. Nichols came inside to get husband Richard to drive their nephew to the doctor. As they reached their car, the bomb went off.
RICHARD NICHOLS, BOMBING WITNESS: I've seen this big object coming through the air, and it was huge. It was just spinning like a top.
CANDIOTTI: The blast sent the truck's back axle flying a full block away.
R. NICHOLS: Coming through the air.
CANDIOTTI: The FBI gave them this photo.
R. NICHOLS: The axle hit from the passenger side door, across the windshield and dash, across the hood, and up to the left front head light. And you can you still see the impression of the axle, the heavy part, which -- the center of the axle hitting here.
CANDIOTTI: Richard Nichols pulled his wife to safety and looked back at the axle.
R. NICHOLS: And I turned to her, and I told her it somebody -- it was a car bomb.
CANDIOTTI: He looked up the street.
R. NICHOLS: The wind, or what, had just moved the smoke and debris, and it was just clear. You could -- the whole front of the Murrah federal building was gone.
CANDIOTTI: That 250-pound axle became the clue that cracked the case. Within a day, it would lead to McVeigh. An Oklahoma City bomb detective brushed away the grime on the axle to find a serial number.
SGT. MIKE MCPHERSON, OKLAHOMA CITY POLICE: That's what we needed to get to find out the trail that it took, who rented the truck or whose truck it was.
CANDIOTTI: The detective traced the truck to this Ryder outlet in Junction City, Kansas. But the driver left a fake name behind.
(on camera): He didn't use his own name?
ELDON ELLIOTT, RYDER TRUCK RENTALS: No. CANDIOTTI: He used the name...
ELLIOTT: Bob Klein.
CANDIOTTI: Across town, at the Dreamland motel, the owner identified an FBI sketch as the man who had registered there under his own name, Timothy McVeigh.
LT. CHARLES HANGER, OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL: As I looked at the back of the car, there was no tag.
CANDIOTTI: Oklahoma trooper Charles Hanger stopped a driver with that name an hour after the bombing, because his car had no license tag. He took McVeigh to jail, where the FBI would find him two days later.
HANGER: And come to find out he was the process of being released, probably 15, 20 minutes away.
CANDIOTTI: From McVeigh's father, the FBI heard about ex-Army buddies Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier. In Terry Nichols' house, agents found bomb-making ingredients and receipts. Fortier and his wife became key witnesses, telling how McVeigh planned the attack for half-a-year.
Terry Nichols went to prison for life for helping build the bomb.
R. NICHOLS: When I heard that axle turning and coming down...
CANDIOTTI: Richard Nichols, no relation, still hears the whoosh of that flying axle that led to McVeigh.
R. NICHOLS: I will always see that axle, I'll always hear that axle. Him dying is not going to change it. Quite honestly, I will probably forget the day that he dies. I will remember his name, but I won't remember the day he died.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: At this hour, Timothy McVeigh is remembering those he cares about. According to his attorney Robert Nigh who spoke with him just a few hours ago via telephone, he says that McVeigh is now calling his family, imprinting their picture in his mind, and he is writing letters to those he cares about, and also giving away a few of his belongings.
Back to you, Donna.
KELLEY: Susan Candiotti in Terre Haute, Indiana. Thanks.
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