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CNN Saturday Morning News

Preparing for the McVeigh Execution

Aired June 09, 2001 - 09:07   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now on to Timothy McVeigh. It is now less than 48 hours until his scheduled execution. An attorney says McVeigh is probably writing a number of letters as he prepares for his date in the death chamber.

CNN's Jeff Flock is outside the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Good morning again, Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Indeed, we've been getting most of the information about Mr. McVeigh's state of mind from his attorneys. Today a bit of a lull, really. We've passed all of the appeals, the preparations, and of course we're just now moving into the day when all of the protesters are expected to come to town and all that sort of thing.

Some headlines for today, still no word on that transfer of McVeigh from the death row to the death house. Jim Cross, who speaks for the warden here, described this as a typical day at the prison. I don't know exactly what he meant there, although I think he was referring to the inmates.

And also some clarification on the final meal. They have told us that Mr. McVeigh has not made the ultimate choice yet, although he will be limited to either prison food or something order out from the community, and the limit is $20. So no big, fancy meals.

As to what this next two days hold, well, let's tick it down for you, give you some indication of what that is. Let's start two days out and tell you what is on tap for today. First of all, verification today by the warden that all of the equipment checks have been completed. You know, this death house is new here, never been used before. This is also the first time there will be a camera photographing an execution on that closed circuit arrangement down to Oklahoma City. So all of those checks need to be made today.

Now, moving to 24 to 12 hours out, phone privileges for Mr. McVeigh will be restricted, and final meal arrangements made during that period. From 12 to three hours prior, Mr. McVeigh will be served that final meal, whatever his choice is. His visits to him will be limited to those at the discretion of Warden Harley Lapin (ph).

And then access to prison property will be limited. They want to make sure that no other employees of the prison who are not supposed to be here are not here, no sightseers or that sort of thing.

Then moving to one -- between one hour and 30 minutes prior to the execution, Mr. McVeigh will be taken from the holding cell, where he will -- where he's not yet being held. And he will be strip- searched and dressed in khakis, a shirt, and slip-on shoes, and then taken to the execution room, put on a gurney, and then it all begins.

And of course that is set for 7:00 local time, that is 8:00 Eastern time.

And we'll be here.

That's the latest this hour, Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeff Flock in Terre Haute. And we will be hearing from him in just a little bit in our Reporter's Notebook segment.

Timothy McVeigh was moved to the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute two years ago now. McVeigh's presence has been a major story for the media, and no more so than now, with his execution hours away.

Of course, there were many who believed this past week that that execution might be delayed even later, but then, of course, a judge in Denver and ultimately an appeals court refused to effort to grant a stay of execution to Timothy McVeigh, and McVeigh thus deciding to throw up the white flag legally, if you will, and allowing the process to go forward, his attorney saying he is preparing for and ready to give up his life.

While we're not sure if we've seen the last picture of Timothy McVeigh, we'll never forget the first time he came to our attention. That image of McVeigh exiting the Perry, Oklahoma, courthouse, surrounded by authorities, is seared into our consciousness.

CNN's Ed Lavandera went back to Perry, Oklahoma, to see what residents are saying now.

(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)

O'BRIEN: Timothy McVeigh moved to that federal penitentiary two years ago. Terre Haute, Indiana, has in many ways been changed significantly because of the events that are unfolding there right now.

For more on this, we turn to Max Jones, who is with "The Tribune- Star" of Terre Haute, to talk about the coverage and the impact on that community.

Mr. Jones, good to have you with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

MAX JONES, "TRIBUNE-STAR" OF TERRE HAUTE: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Try to put it in perspective for us. Terre Haute is not a tiny town, but it's not a large city either. When something like this happens, it has ripple effects, doesn't it?

JONES: Well, it certainly does. The prison has been located in this community for a little over 60 years, and through that time, the facility has really been a fairly low-profile institution. So suddenly to have an institution like this so high-profile has certainly been a major change for the community.

O'BRIEN: Would people in the community prefer to keep the profile lower?

JONES: Well, it's kind of hard to say right now. I think that the community is happy the prison is here. It brings a lot of good jobs here, a lot of good services that can be provided here. I think that it remains to be seen as time goes on and more executions occur in this facility how the attitudes may change over time.

O'BRIEN: And of course it's worth pointing out that this became the facility where federal executions will be carried out only in 1993, and this is the first time this has happened there in Terre Haute, correct?

JONES: That's correct.

O'BRIEN: All right. So this could be the beginning of a series of events not unlike this, although it's hard to conjure up an event that would match this one.

JONES: Well, it would be very difficult to imagine something of this magnitude. Once we get past the McVeigh execution, just a few days later, about a week later, we will have a second execution that's scheduled. So we realize that once this is past us, there's more to come.

O'BRIEN: What has it been like from your perspective covering this story?

JONES: Well, we recognized early on in the mid-'90s that the day was going to come when this community was going to be in the middle of a huge story. Of course, when they first located the -- made the decision to locate the facility here, no one had ever heard of Timothy McVeigh.

So that has been something that has come up fairly recently. But I think that, you know, we saw this coming, we've tried to take steps to prepare, to devote more resources to be able to cover a story of this magnitude, and we're just trying to keep up with everybody else.

O'BRIEN: You know, the sad and perhaps crass fact here, and you alluded to it already, is that something like this is good for business in a town. Are people saying that openly?

JONES: Well, I think everyone realizes that there is going to be some people who provide certain types of services in this community that are going to have a heavy impact. And there will be some short- term profits to be made for those people.

It will be interesting to see over time just what the larger impact, economic impact, will be. At this point, I'm not absolutely sure that it's going to be sure than just a minor blip on the charts. But it'll be something that'll be interesting to watch over time.

O'BRIEN: And before you get away, a word on security. I know that the -- essentially all the city and government offices in Terre Haute will be closed on the day of the execution. Give us a sense of how tight those security measures might be, and how you're going to attempt to cover this whole event from your perspective on Monday.

JONES: Well, there's been a lot of effort put into making the people of this community feel secure and to know that all of the law enforcement community has banded together to try to make sure that they can provide the sort of security and the sense of -- provide a sense of safety to everyone as well as they can.

From our point of view, though, you know, we really do -- we have sort of parallel huge stories here from the characterization of the "Tribune-Star"'s efforts. Not only are we covering the event itself, but we're covering the equally large story of the impact all of this is having on Terre Haute.

And security is certainly part of that, and it's something we'll be keeping a close eye on as the day goes on.

O'BRIEN: Max Jones is the editor in chief of the "Tribune-Star" in Terre Haute, one of the bigger stories I suspect he has encountered in that tenure. We appreciate you joining us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Good luck with the story, and the events as they unfold.

JONES: Thank you very much.

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