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CNN Live Event/Special

President Bush Speaks About McVeigh Execution

Aired June 11, 2001 - 09:45   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: You're seeing now a picture from the White House. President Bush again anticipated at any moment now to step to the microphones there and issue his statement now from the White House.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This morning, the United States of America carried out the severest sentence for the gravest of crimes. The victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have been given not vengeance, but justice. And one young man met the fate he chose for himself six years ago.

For the survivors of the crime and for the families of the dead, the pain goes on. Final punishment of the guilty cannot alone bring peace to the innocent. It cannot recover the loss or balance the scales. And it is not meant to do so.

Today, every living person who was hurt by the evil done in Oklahoma City can rest in the knowledge that there has been a reckoning. At every point from the morning of April 19, 1995, to this hour, we have seen the good that overcomes evil. We saw it in the rescuers who saved and suffered with the victims. We have seen it in a community that has grieved and held close the memory of the lost. We have seen it in the work of detectives, marshals and police.

And we've seen it in the courts. Due process ruled. The case was proved. The verdict was calmly reached. And the rights of the accused were protected and observed to the full and to the end. Under the laws of our country, the matter is concluded.

Life and history bring tragedies and often they cannot be explained but they can be redeemed. They are redeemed by dispensing justice, though eternal justice is not ours to deliver; by remembering those who grieve, including Timothy McVeigh's mother, father and sisters; and by trusting in purposes greater than our own.

May God in his mercy grant peace to all; to the lives that were taken six years ago, to the lives that go on and to the life that ended today.

HEMMER: President Bush, a short statement from the White House saying that the most severe punishment has been carried out against the greatest crime. He said survivors indeed, for the pain goes on and continues for them, saying, quote, "We have seen the good that overcomes evil," pointing out the rescuers in Oklahoma City, as well as the community, the detectives and police, all the way on down to the court system. Again, a short statement from the White House.

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