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American Morning

FBI Blunder Casts Doubt on McVeigh's Scheduled Date With Death

Aired May 11, 2001 - 10:00   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We start with the situation with Timothy McVeigh.

It is more than six years after a massive explosion ripped into the heart of Oklahoma City and the soul of the nation. And now, a thunderous new charge detonates. And again, it is Timothy McVeigh, the admitted mastermind behind the attack, who may make the life-and- death decision.

Lawyers for McVeigh say he is considering his options after the revelation that the FBI inadvertently withheld evidence from his defense team. That oversight could win McVeigh a stay of execution if he wants one. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday, five days from now.

We have CNN correspondents posted at many of the mile markers along this rapidly developing story: Kelli Arena is at the Justice Department, Gina London is in Denver, and Keith Oppenheim is in Terre Haute, Indiana -- that is the designated site of the execution.

We're going to start with Kelli, with the government's perspective.

Kelli, good morning, again.

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, here is what we know about what happened. An FBI archivist was basically gathering all the information related to the Oklahoma City bombing case from the various field offices -- FBI field offices -- around the country.

During the compilation process, investigators did stumble upon the 3,000 pages that had never been turned over to Timothy McVeigh's defense attorneys during the discovery phase of the trial. That is something that had been ordered by the court -- that all relevant information had to be handed over. This is information that was gathered immediately following the bombing and in the days after -- handwritten notes by FBI agents after they had performed interviews, tape recordings, videotapes,

Why it wasn't turned over is the key question. We will be hearing a little bit more on that issue from the FBI field office in Dallas. One of the agents that worked there was the last man to head up the Oklahoma City task force and should be able shed a little bit of light on that issue.

As for the Justice Department, things are very fluid here. We don't know whether or not we'll be hearing anything later on in the day. But they did issue a statement last night.

And I'll read a little bit of it as follows -- a quote -- "Once the government was made aware of the documents, they were turned over to the defense. They are not material to the case and have no bearing on the outcome of the conviction. If the defense disagrees, they will contact us."

Now we have heard from Timothy McVeigh's lawyers. They say they are discussing their legal options, one of those, of course would be to request a stay. But it's not only McVeigh's attorneys that have that option. The government, the Justice Department could also move for a stay of execution, to give some time to go over these documents, both for the judge and for the defense attorneys.

The judge himself, who heard the case back in 1997, could also order a stay of execution. We have not heard anything on that matter just yet. There have been no formal decisions made from any of those parties up to this point -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kelli, this is yet another black eye for the FBI -- that it has had a lot of negative publicity lately.

ARENA: Well, Daryn, yes. I mean obviously, we just went through the whole spy saga with Robert Hanssen and how he got away with spying for 15 years and providing information. This does lead to more criticism of the FBI's computer system. And some charge that it is antiquated, that it really needed to be updated, that priorities were not in the proper place.

This leads to another question of -- are our internal procedures adequate enough, not only in dealing with the issue of spies and espionage, but day-to-day routine activity -- like what would take place in an investigation of a terrorist act or any criminal act that happens on U.S. soil.

So there's lots of soul searching going on -- lots of criticism. There is an internal review going on by the FBI, as happens whenever there is something curious that goes on, something that didn't work out right. So they are in the middle of that internal investigation. They will, of course, hand over their findings to the Justice Department. And -- but besides the comment though today from the Dallas bureau, we do not expect to hear anything else, though, from the national office here in Washington -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kelli Arena, at the Justice Department, thank you.

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