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American Morning

McVeigh Execution Date Uncertain After FBI Evidence Discovery

Aired May 11, 2001 - 09:00   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin with the federal mistake that could delay the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Just five days before he is scheduled to die, McVeigh is now said to be weighing his legal options after the FBI admitted inadvertently withholding evidence. We'll have extensive live coverage on all of this.

CNN's Gina London is in Denver, where any request for a stay would be filed. Keith Oppenheim is standing by in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the execution is scheduled to happen. And Kelli Arena is at the Justice Department, with details on how those documents were discovered in the first place.

But first, let's go to CNN's Susan Candiotti. She brings us up to date on this surprising turn of events.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days before Timothy McVeigh is to be strapped to a table and receive a lethal injection in this death chamber, the FBI admits what it calls an embarrassing blunder and one that could delay his execution next Wednesday.

The agency has found original documents, including untranscribed FBI notes, never turned over to the defense, something required by the courts. The Justice Department and FBI insists there is -- quote -- "nothing of major significance in the material and nothing that could put McVeigh's conviction in jeopardy."

McVeigh's lawyers, not surprisingly, are not prepared to take the government's word for it.

NATHAN CHAMBERS, MCVEIGH ATTORNEY: It's troubling that documents that were ordered to be produced were not produced until six days before the scheduled execution. That's not the way the system was designed to work.

CANDIOTTI: The Justice Department says the new material came to light Tuesday and maintains none of it creates any reasonable doubt about McVeigh's guilt. After all, the government says, McVeigh has now taken credit for the bombing.

McVeigh's lead prosecutor Joseph Hartzler, interviewed before this startling development, says there is no doubt McVeigh and convicted co-conspirator Terry Nichols acted alone, adding there is no evidence of a wider conspiracy.

JOSEPH HARTZLER, PROSECUTOR: I mean, for there to have been another conspirator, for McVeigh and Nichols to have enlisted another person, engaged them in this horrible crime, brought them into their confidence, they had to have some need. And I don't see the need.

CANDIOTTI: One victim's relative who was scheduled to be one of the execution eyewitnesses:

PAUL HOWELL, FATHER OF VICTIM: Why in the world did they wait for six years to come up with this kind of evidence? Who are they trying to punish: the family members, or McVeigh, or what?

CANDIOTTI (on camera): Sources call the 3,000 or so pages of new material redundant and claim they will only further prove McVeigh's guilt. But the fact is, it will take the defense time to review those documents. The question is whether all this will delay McVeigh's execution and what he wants to do.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's check out and see what Timothy McVeigh's intentions are from here. We go to Denver where McVeigh was tried and convicted. His lawyers are there considering what to do next. Our Gina London joining us live now from Denver.

Gina, good morning.

GINA LONDON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

That's right, Denver does play a very key role in this particular development. Because of, as you mentioned, his defense attorney Nathan Chambers actually has an office here in Denver. And yesterday, he said, that's where he was hand-delivered this box of those 3,000 pages of new evidence.

He's going to be reviewing that, he said, over the weekend and if he does decide to make a motion for a stay of execution, then the issue is going to come here to the building behind me. That is the other issue here in Denver.

That's the federal court, whereas you mentioned, that's where he was tried before and that's where federal Judge Richard Matsch, who is known here among the lawyers in the legal community as "King Richard" -- a very serious judge. In this particular case, he was very strident and very stringent. Now he's also expected to be the one who would receive this motion if he were to get it -- as soon as Monday we possibly understand.

His chamber says that they are on notice. They've not received anything yet. But they are aware that something may be pending. Meantime, we've also heard earlier today, apparently one of the former attorneys of Tim McVeigh -- that of Richard Burr. He said it is very, very important to carefully examine this new evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BURR, FORMER MCVEIGH ATTORNEY: As everybody knows, Tim McVeigh has not wanted to go forward with any more review. The thing that is critical, I think, is that the government itself ought to recognize, as everybody who thinks about this very long has recognized, that this is unfair and there ought to be time to review these documents and determine whether there is anything that would have been at use at trial before the execution takes place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LONDON: And now also, Daryn we have heard from Nathan Chambers again this morning. He says that he's not quite sure what he's going to do with all of this. Over the weekend, there's going to be a lot of legal reviewing going on, in addition to reviewing all of those pages of documents. And as I mentioned again, if a motion to stay this execution is filed, it will be here in this court no sooner than Monday.

Reporting live in Denver, Gina London, CNN.

HARRIS: All right, thank you, Gina. Well, as of now, McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection next Wednesday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. And CNN's Keith Oppenheim is following the latest developments from there -- Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, it's probably wise for me to explain that there are three general areas where this execution could be either stayed or delayed.

First of all, the judge in this case, Judge Richard Matsch, who presided over the federal trial four years ago -- on his own authority, he could order a delay. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is actually in charge of the execution date, not the courts itself, so the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft could also delay the date. And then, of course, there is Timothy McVeigh who could request a stay of execution through his attorneys.

One of those attorneys, Robert Nigh, flew into Indianapolis last night. And we do not know for sure if he's going to meet his client today, but there's certainly a good expectation of that. I was talking to some of the prison officials just a little while ago, Leon and they said while there are normally severe limits on how much time Timothy McVeigh can do anything on a given day, he is given a lot of freedom in this case to talk to his attorney or attorneys, given the situation that is before him.

There is certainly a range of reaction from relatives of victims from the Oklahoma City bombing as well as survivors themselves, some who are frustrated by these developments and others who are reflecting the opinion that eventually Timothy McVeigh will be executed. And we're going to hear that point of view from survivor Paul Heath.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PAUL HEATH, BOMBING SURVIVOR: He's simply going to go to sleep. But as soon as he does, all of us are going to remember April 19 and the shape that those bodies were in when they came out of the building. And people are going to say it wasn't fair. And it wasn't fair. And it isn't fair. And we'll just have to work through that one at a time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: The plan had been for on Tuesday or possibly as early as Monday for Timothy McVeigh to be put in what's called an execution facility holding cell. That's sort of a waiting area before his scheduled execution Wednesday morning. There's certainly been a lot of anxiety from prison officials about doing this right. And this uncertainty probably doesn't make their job any easier. Keep in mind, the last federal execution took place in Iowa way back in 1963.

Back to you in Atlanta.

HARRIS: All right, thanks much, Keith Oppenheim reporting live this morning from Terre Haute -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Let's turn now to the Justice Department for what officials are saying about this major embarrassment, how it happened and what comes next. Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena joining us live.

Kelli, good morning.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: This has a lot of people across America asking the question, "How were these documents discovered at this late date?"

ARENA: Well, basically there was an FBI archivist who decided to get all of the documents relating to the Oklahoma City bombing case together in one FBI office. It was during that compiling of information that they did come across these documents. Some were handwritten notes by agents who had done some interviews, others were videotapes, others were tapes. None of this was transcribed. It was never handed over to the defense attorneys.

Immediately upon finding out, of course, they did alert not only the Justice Department, but defense attorneys and the judge -- Judge Matsch, in this case, who heard the case back in 1997.

What is going on right now is the FBI, as it does whenever something like this happens, -- but nothing quite like this has ever happened before -- but whenever there is a discrepancy, does conduct an internal review, an investigation to make sure that the procedures that it has in place are not -- were not the cause of this, whether it was human error or whether it was a computer problem. We have no idea at this point.

We may get some light shed on the situation later on today. We have been told that perhaps we might be getting a statement out of the Dallas bureau of the FBI. One of the agents who works there happened to lead the Oklahoma City task force. He was the last director of that task force. And so we are told to possibly expect a statement from him later on today.

As for main headquarters, FBI here, they are referring all inquiries to the Justice Department. And Justice, I'm told, has said what it has to say -- that they did what they had to do, immediately upon finding out that these documents were uncovered.

They also say, as you heard in Susan Candiotti's reporting, that these documents are redundant. That there is nothing here that will contradict Timothy McVeigh's guilt. That these are -- this is information that defense attorneys had in some other form. This is just a redundant verification of facts that they already knew -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kelli Arena at the Justice Department -- Kelli, thanks very much.

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