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CNN Saturday Morning News

Oklahoma Governor Discusses Stay of McVeigh's Execution

Aired May 12, 2001 - 09:51   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as you know, our top story all morning has been the one-month stay of execution for Timothy McVeigh.

And we now go to Gary Tuchman, who's been covering the story for us for the past couple days. He's live with the governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kyra. When the bomb exploded on April 19, 1995, the chief executive of the state was a very new governor by the name of Frank Keating. He had only been in office for four months. He's now been in office for almost six and a half years. He's been through all of this with the people of Oklahoma.

Governor Keating, thanks for joining us.

GOV. FRANK KEATING (R), OKLAHOMA: Welcome. Thank you very much, Gary...

TUCHMAN: Were you shocked, surprised? How did you feel when you heard about all this news?

KEATING: Well, I mean, yes, shock and surprise is a good way to describe it. We had just arrived at a celebration, we meaning this community, a celebration down at Bricktown, the canal downtown, to celebrate our Central Hockey League Oklahoma City Blazers' victory, and then all of a sudden people started whispering, Did you know there's something wrong with the McVeigh case? To which everyone said, How could there be anything wrong with the McVeigh case? This guy confessed, this guy waived all his appeals. How in the world could there be anything wrong?

So there was a lot of puzzlement, concern, and surprise.

TUCHMAN: There was much discussion about you possibly being the attorney general of the United States. Of course, John Ashcroft's now the attorney general. But if you were the attorney general, would you have made the same decision as John Ashcroft?

KEATING: Absolutely.

TUCHMAN: Tell me why.

KEATING: I mean, he did the right thing. Well, it's important not only to have this case seen to its appropriate conclusion, and if there is a question raised about the availability of evidence and the sharing of evidence under a discovery order between the parties, it ought to be resolved. But there's a larger picture, as the attorney general said, and that's the process itself.

There shouldn't be an opportunity for conspiracy theorists to say, Look, you rushed to judgment, there were material -- there was material in there that perhaps would suggest fewer people were involved, more people were involved, that government's covering things up.

It just simply would not be a good thing to do. So for the attorney general to step back and say, Look, this process is going to be seen to its appropriate due process conclusion, there's no reason to rush on this, another 30 days isn't inappropriate. It was the right thing.

I know there are a lot of frustrated family members, but it is the right thing to do.

TUCHMAN: Governor Frank Keating, thank you very much for talking to us; appreciate your time.

KEATING: Thank you.

TUCHMAN: Once again, the new date, the scheduled execution date, June 11, but nothing is written in stone.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Gary Tuchman, live from Oklahoma City, thanks so much.

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