Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

McVeigh Execution Set for Monday

Aired June 08, 2001 - 07:01   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Timothy McVeigh's decision has come down to these simple activities: his last messages, his last meal, his last words.

CNN's Susan Candiotti reports on what brought McVeigh to the end of his legal road.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After losing two appeals in as many days, McVeigh told his lawyers: Enough, it's over.

ROB NIGH, MCVEIGH'S LAWYER: He had prepared himself to die prior to the initial execution date of May 16, and he now again wants to make the final preparations necessary to be ready to die on Monday.

CANDIOTTI: McVeigh's final rejection came from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which, after reviewing his petition for seven hours, wrote: "McVeigh has utterly failed to demonstrate substantial grounds upon which relief might be granted."

The Appeals Court upheld Wednesday's ruling by Judge Richard Matsch, who said the FBI records blunder did not matter in the long run and that the evidence against McVeigh and his own failure to claim innocence left him no valid grounds to appeal.

McVeigh's lawyers admitted the odds were stacked against them because of the brutality of the bombing: the worst terrorist act on U.S. soil.

RICHARD BURR, MCVEIGH ATTORNEY: Every decision along the way in this case since just before trial has been driven by the magnitude of the crime.

CANDIOTTI: McVeigh's lawyers now head to Terre Haute to witness his death and dispose of his ashes.

(on camera): For McVeigh, it has been a long legal battle that might have ended sooner had it not been for the FBI document disaster. It bought him more time to live. And now that time is drawing to an end.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Denver. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And we have two correspondents following the final hours of Timothy McVeigh's life. Gary Tuchman has been getting reaction for us in Oklahoma City. And Jeff Flock is at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where McVeigh will be put to death.

We're going to begin, though, with Gary -- Gary, go ahead.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Colleen, 2,242 days ago, Timothy McVeigh drove a yellow Ryder rental truck right to this area behind me, left it and blew up the Murrah Federal Building, which is no longer here. And because of that, he only has three mornings left. He will be executed in Terre Haute 73 hours from now. And for the family members of the victims and the survivors who favor the death penalty, this was the news they were waiting for.

Minutes after the announcement, yesterday, the mother of one of the victims came out of this museum behind me and hugged a prosecutor in the McVeigh case who was out here at the time. That mother is Doris Jones. She lost her 26-year-old daughter, Carrie, who was six months pregnant.

I asked Doris Jones what she would say to her late daughter right now, if she could.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DORIS JONES, MOTHER OF BOMBING VICTIM: I just talked to her. I just went to her chair and I said, "It's almost over." So I just did talk to her.

TUCHMAN: It's a very emotional time right now.

JONES: It is, yes. Haven't done this for a while. You know, I've fought a long time and hard for this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: The chair she's referring to is one of the 168 chairs behind me that are part of this memorial -- each chair for one of the victims who died on April 19, 1995.

Now, the prosecutor she was hugging is Patrick Ryan. He was one of four prosecutors in the McVeigh trial in Denver. He's the former U.S. attorney from Oklahoma City. And I asked him if he was surprised that McVeigh threw in the towel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK RYAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: I'm not surprised because this is a man who gave up his last appellate rights on his habeas appeal, so he's obviously someone who is not inclined to always follow his lawyer's advice. And in this case, I think that he's done a favor, finally, to the nation. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: The execution may be in Indiana, but there's a lot of activity here. Much more security in place right now outside the area where the Murrah building used to stand. This weekend, a government plane will be flown here to Oklahoma City to fly 10 Oklahomans out to Terre Haute to witness the execution in person. And then the closed- circuit site is being set up here. Roughly 300 family members of victims and survivors will watch a closed-circuit telecast of the execution bright and early Monday morning -- Colleen, back to you.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Gary, thanks very much.

And now for more on what McVeigh's final hours will be like, we go to our Jeff Flock, who is in Terre Haute, Indiana -- Jeff.

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

And, in some sense, two stories, separate and distinct, playing out here in Terre Haute. One is the execution of Tim McVeigh, and the second is the execution happening at all. You know, this is something that the federal government has not done since 1963, and in fact, has never done by lethal injection.

The federal government, in the past, has executed by electrocution, by firing squad, by hanging but never by lethal injection. As you report, it is now exactly 72 hours away here in Terre Haute.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): When the federal penitentiary here in Terre Haute, Indiana, was built in 1940, it was the first with a razor-wire fence instead of a wall for security. Now, another first looms: first federal capital punishment since 1963 -- Tim McVeigh to be put to death on this brown padded gurney Monday morning. It's visible through glass panels in the prison's so-called execution facility, the windowless brick building on the west side of the 33-acre grounds.

McVeigh is now housed here with 19 other inmates on the special confinement unit. It's federal death row. Each of them in an 8-by-10 cell, like this one, with a bunk, toilet, desk and small black and white TV set.

Beginning Friday morning, McVeigh could, at any time, be moved to the death house, where he will stay in this holding cell watched by guards until about 6:00 a.m. local time Monday. That's when, dressed in khakis, a shirt and slip-on shoes, he is brought to the green ceramic-tiled room where a lethal injection of sodium Thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride will be pumped into his arm.

While we know much about what is to happen to McVeigh over the next few days, very little has come out about the almost two years he spent at the prison here in Terre Haute. This Web site, deathrowspeaks.net, purports to publish the journals of fellow federal death row inmates. Prison officials believe the site's postings are from inmates, but couldn't confirm the veracity of the claims.

One inmate who claims to have been McVeigh's next door neighbor says McVeigh had been resigned to his execution and, for several months, ate only vegetables because he wanted to look like a -- quote -- "concentration camp victim" for the postmortem photos. A journal entry from a week ago says McVeigh had taken to eating regular food lately as the prospect of a stay loomed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLOCK: Prison officials told us yesterday that Tim McVeigh has refused to be photographed before the execution on Monday, although they admit that they hadn't asked him lately. Officials also say -- officials here in the prison also are, of course, the ones who have been blocking any on-camera interviews of McVeigh over the course of the past several months. And in some sense, that will insure that whatever Tim McVeigh has to say between now and Monday morning will, in fact, be reported secondhand.

We'll continue to watch it here at the penitentiary in Terre Haute.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Jeff Flock, thanks very much.

Now you can go to our Web site if you want an in-depth look -- a special, actually, on the Timothy McVeigh execution. Our address is CNN.com. And if you're an America Online subscriber, the AOL keyword is CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com