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CNN Live At Daybreak

McVeigh Execution: Oklahoma Governor Keating Discusses Views

Aired June 11, 2001 - 07:31   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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Oklahoma's Governor Frank Keating has had to deal with the bombing on many, many levels. He was a brand new governor back in 1995, just three months into his term, when that bomb went off.

And the governor joins us this morning, from Oklahoma City.

Governor, thank you for being here.

GOV. FRANK KEATING, OKLAHOMA: My pleasure, good morning.

MCEDWARDS: I'd like to ask you what you remember about that day.

KEATING: Well, as most, it was an ordinary day. It was a beautiful spring day in Oklahoma City. I'm from the other side of the turnpike, over in Tulsa, so I was a new resident of Oklahoma City. We had just attended a mayor's prayer breakfast that morning. I went back to the office, and as many in this town, if not most, the harrumph of that bomb indicated that something had occurred.

The early news reports indicated a utility explosion in a federal courthouse. I could see by the television coverage immediately it was a federal office building filled with people, and the extent of the devastation, as your viewers have seen, indicated more than a utility explosion. Someone blew it up. It was the beginning of a horror for Oklahoma City.

MCEDWARDS: And you know, I've heard, Governor, that that memory is still very fresh there. I heard a resident quoted the other day saying that every time a firecracker goes off or a car backfires in Oklahoma City, people sort of bristle -- any noise in the distance, they still hear that bomb.

KEATING: People do remember it, but obviously, the bad, the evil, that occurred here has, in a large part, been washed away by the civic spirit, the goodness, the incredible coming together of the community. The fact that there was no looting, with 330 buildings damaged or destroyed. Money was raised to put every child through a college who lost one or both parents, and there were 30 kids who lost both their parents, and 170 lost one. And over 100 kids are in college right now.

The family members, obviously, will never be whole, but the community itself feels that out of evil, good comes, and we stitched together very well as a result of this, and it's certainly nice to know that at least this piece of this awful tragedy is over.

MCEDWARDS: Governor Keating, I remember back in '97, around the time of the trial, the Roman Catholic bishops coming out and saying that Timothy McVeigh's life should be spared. At the time, you said no, the death penalty was the appropriate punishment. Do you still feel that way now?

KEATING: I do. The death penalty -- and I'm a Catholic -- the death penalty is very, very rarely applied in the United States. We have, unfortunately, a violent society; some 485,000 people have been killed in America since 1977, and a grand total of 685 executions -- something like 0.5 percent of the killings result in executions.

But if ever capital punishment were justified, it'd be justified for this individual, who killed 168 innocent men, women, and children, including 19 babies. If ever the moral code, the legal code, cried out for real justice for that kind of agony, it's in this case.

MCEDWARDS: Governor Keating, thank you very much for your time this morning -- appreciate it.

KEATING: Sure, you're welcome. Thank you.

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