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FBI Withheld McVeigh Evidence
Feds: Nearly 200 Pieces Of Evidence Mistakenly Held From Defense
McVeigh's Lawyers Considering Asking For Stay Of Execution
FBI Probing Why Materials, Found During Archiving, Weren't Disclosed
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2001
AP / CBS
McVeigh's would be the first federal execution since 1963.
(CBS) Six years after the Oklahoma City bombing and six days before Timothy
McVeigh is scheduled to die, the Justice Department Thursday said the FBI
mistakenly withheld nearly 200 pieces of evidence from McVeigh's defense
team, CBS News has learned.
McVeigh and his attorneys learned of the evidence on Tuesday, and the judge
in the case, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, has also been informed. The
Justice Department delivered the documents, comprising thousands of pages, to
the defense team.
The attorneys told CBS News they are actively considering filing for a stay
of execution.
"We have under consideration the options that we could pursue," said attorney
Nathan Chambers. "Mr. McVeigh is going to think about it and decide how he
wants to proceed."
CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports that some of the evidence appears
to be original FBI interviews done in the hours and days immediately after
the bombing.
An FBI spokesman told CBS News that the bureau does not know at this time why
the material was not turned over, and is conducting an internal investigation
to determine how such an error occurred.
According to a letter from Justice Department attorney Sean Connelly to the
defense team, which was delivered by hand Thursday, Connelly told the lawyers
about the newly uncovered evidence by telephone on Tuesday. Connelly first
learned of the oversight the same day.
Now It's McVeigh's Call
CBS News.com Legal Consultant Andrew Cohen explains McVeigh has been handed
an extraordinary position of power through an extraordinarily unconscionable
FBI mistake.
The materials were "generated" by the FBI field division outside Oklahoma
City, according to the letter and include FBI "302" reports of interviews, as
well as photographs, letters and tapes. Some of the material concerns people
who "at one time were thought to resemble" the composite sketches of the
bombing suspects produced early in the investigation.
Connelly wrote that FBI Special Agent Danny Defenbaugh, who headed the
bombing investigation and now works in the bureau's Dallas field office,
alerted Connelly to the existence of the material.
"FBI Director Louis Freeh and Agent Defenbaugh had requested on numerous
occasions prior to trial that each field division and legal attache forward
all (bombing investigation-related) material to the Oklahoma Division, and
had received assurances that all such materials had been forwarded," the
letter reads. "The belated discovery of additional such materials came after
an FBI archivist requested that all (bombing-related) materials be sent to
the Oklahoma City field office for archiving."
The Justice Department letter contends the evidence is not relevant to the
convictions of McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols of the sentences against
them. Nichols is serving a life term.
"Similarly, we do not believe anything in the materials makes even a prima
facie showing of either man's actual evidence," Connelly writes, adding that
many of the materials are similar to evidence the defense team was given.
In most cases, a disclosure that evidence was withheld would make a motion
for a new trial almost certain. At a minimum, that would involve a hearing
that would delay the death sentence.
But that is up to McVeigh and his attorneys. McVeigh has said he wants to
die. It is not known what he has conveyed to his attorneys, and he might tell
his defense team not to interfere.
Chambers said there was a "theoretical possibility" McVeigh could be tried
again.
"I'm disturbed that these reports were produced at this late date," Chambers
said. "Here we are a full six years after the bombing and less than a week
before Mr. McVeigh's scheduled executions, when these reports mysteriously
appear, so it's a cause for concern."
Oklahoma City survivors, meanwhile, were stunned by the late development.
FBI Statement
On Tuesday, May 8, the Department of Justice notified Timothy
McVeigh's attorneys of a number of FBI documents that should have
been provided to them during the discovery phase of the trial.
While the department is confident the documents do not in any
way create any reasonable doubt about McVeigh's guilt and do not
contradict his repeated confessions of guilt, the department is
concerned that McVeigh's attorneys were not able to review them at
the appropriate time.
The documents have been made available to McVeigh's attorneys,
and the department has asked for notification if they believe any
of the documents create any reasonable doubt about McVeigh's guilt.
(AP)
"It'll set everybody back several steps," said survivor Glenda Riley. "I
really think it'll set everybody back."
McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the federal prison in
Terre Haute, Ind., at 7 a.m. CST on May 16. His execution would be the first
federal death penalty administered since 1963. It will broadcast on closed
circuit television so survivors and families of those killed can watch.
A CBS News poll taken last month in which 76 percent of the respondents favor
the execution and only 20 percent oppose it.
The April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in
Oklahoma City killed 168 people.
McVeigh claims he built and detonated the 4,800-pound bomb in response to the
deadly 1993 federal raid at the Branch Davidians compound in Waco.
Arrested on federal charges two days after the blast and indicted the
following August, McVeigh's trial ran from March to June 1997. McVeigh was
convicted of conspiracy, using a weapon of mass destruction, destroying a
federal building with a bomb and murdering eight federal agents. He was
sentenced to death.
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Look back at the Oklahoma City Bombing
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He appealed the sentence, but in December, 2000, withdrew his appeals and
asked for an execution date. On January 16, the date of May 16 was set.
McVeigh had one month after the date was set to ask for executive clemency,
and made no such request.
In American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, a book
published last month, McVeigh is quoted as saying, "the truth is, I blew up
the Murrah building."
In addition to his federal sentence, Nichols faces 160 Oklahoma state murder
counts. Michael Fortier, who was involved in the early planning for the
bombing but cooperated with prosecutors, faces jail time on weapons charges.
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Press contributed to this report.
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