-Caveat Lector-
Lous Freeh signed a certification that all evidence has now been turned
over?
Does it make a difference? Maybe not in the case of McVeigh but what
about others sent to Court hanged before the hearing and why conceal any
evidence? What about KGB viritually having an office in the FBI under
Freeh?
MSNBC should be hauled into court for some of the information they are
putting out also about the kids in the stand-off.....they say now the
mother was alcoholic, made reference to kids being held hostage (this
stupid Dr. Audrey was on so excited) until a guest on show reminded this
stupid woman this was not hostage situation. Building case for federal
violations against little kids and their dogs? Dare not shoot or
murder the kids and dogs after Waco and Ruby Ridge......MSNBC should be
sued and cited for attempting to create another Waco?
Considering Waco and Ruby Ridge, I say the kids have a right to be
scared - at least now we see what a liar Freeh really was - and has been
all along.
Who fired first shot at Ruby Ridge? Agents for Clinton or Agents for
KGB - or both?
Nice item here - Timothy McVeigh has nothing to lose - he claimed he
did not know about the nursery - but that day in Oklahoma, the FBI and
BATF who stayed home along with a judge who had been warned did know?
Timothy took orders all his life, he did not give them......he knows by
now the conspirators are not coming to his rescue - he has been double
crossed maybe triple crossed????? Wonder he is still alive - for he
dropped a few clues that some of the people with whom he had obviously
made a covenant of death - are still around.
Saba
June 1, 2001
McVeigh Lawyers, Seeing Fraud, Ask Judge for Stay of Execution
By JO THOMAS
Reuters Timothy J. McVeigh's lawyers spoke Thursday about his request
for a stay of execution. Above are Richard Burr and Robert Nigh Jr. at
the federal prison Terre Haute, Ind., where the execution is scheduled
for June 11.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., May 31 — Lawyers for Timothy J. McVeigh today asked
the federal judge who sentenced him to death for his role in the
Oklahoma City bombing to grant him a stay of execution, saying that Mr.
McVeigh wanted to hold the government responsible for failing to produce
thousands of pages of evidence at his trial.
He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary
here on June 11.
The lawyers, citing 4,449 pages of newly discovered F.B.I. documents
they have received in recent days, also asked the judge, Richard P.
Matsch, for a hearing to determine how and why the evidence was withheld
and whether other exculpatory evidence was still being withheld. In
papers filed today, they said they intended to argue that the federal
government had perpetrated "a fraud on the court" by not handing over
the documents during the trial.
Mr. McVeigh's lawyers, Robert Nigh Jr. of Tulsa and Richard Burr of
Houston, who held a news conference after meeting with Mr. McVeigh at
the federal penitentiary here, filed their brief under seal in the
federal court in Denver this afternoon. The brief included 300 pages of
exhibits, including an F.B.I. interview report that the lawyers said
they had received yesterday, after its author, Ricardo Ojeda, a former
F.B.I. special agent, appeared on television saying he believed that
possibly exculpatory evidence he had obtained was withheld from the
defense.
Mr. McVeigh, who gave up his appeals last December, is seeking the stay
because he wants "to promote integrity in the criminal justice system,"
Mr. Nigh said, adding that "the Department of Justice and the F.B.I.
will not otherwise be held to account unless he takes this action."
To win a stay, Mr. McVeigh's lawyers must convince the judge that they
need more time to review the documents. To be granted a new trial, their
hurdle is higher: they would have to show that something in the withheld
documents had prevented Mr. McVeigh from receiving a fair trial, or cast
doubt on his guilt.
In accusing the F.B.I. of a fraud on the court, Mr. McVeigh's lawyers
suggested that the government had deliberately withheld documents and
had, even now, failed to fully disclose all the documents it was
required to produce, despite the assurances of Attorney General John
Ashcroft. Mr. Ashcroft said last week that the F.B.I. director, Louis J.
Freeh, had signed a certification that all F.B.I. documents had been
turned over.
Several lawyers said today that to show the government's conduct was
improper, defense lawyers would have to present evidence to the judge
indicating that the documents had been withheld deliberately by F.B.I.
agents who knew they were obliged to disclose them. So far, Mr. Freeh
has acknowledged that not turning over the documents was a "serious
error," but unintentional.
Moreover, defense lawyers would be required to show that the withheld
documents were relevant to their defense of Mr. McVeigh and could have
affected the jury's consideration of the case against him. Thus far, Mr.
Ashcroft and Mr. Freeh have said repeatedly that the material shed no
light on Mr. McVeigh's culpability and did not alter his guilt.
Mr. Ashcroft, who postponed Mr. McVeigh's execution on May 11 after
learning about the withheld F.B.I documents, restated those views today.
"The Department of Justice is prepared to
oppose vigorously any attempts by Timothy McVeigh to overturn his
conviction and sentence or to force a new trial," Mr. Ashcroft said. "No
document in this case creates any doubt about McVeigh's guilt or
establishes his innocence. To overturn the jury's verdict or to force a
new trial, McVeigh must prove that the documents establish his
innocence."
At a hearing this afternoon in Denver, Judge Matsch granted Mr.
McVeigh's request to file his brief under seal and gave the government
until June 4 to reply, and set a hearing for June 6. He denied as
unnecessary Mr. McVeigh's request for an order forbidding the Justice
Department to reveal its contents to anyone outside the department.
Sean Connelly, a special prosecutor in the United States attorney
general's office and a prosecutor at Mr. McVeigh's trial, told reporters
this afternoon, "We categorically deny that there's been any fraud on
the court."
Mr. Connelly said, "The fraud on the courts here, we submit, is an
attempt to circumvent the legal requirements of a 1996 law that limit
petitioners in the position of Timothy McVeigh to a showing of actual
innocence if they wish to avoid a death sentence."
In their filing with the court, Mr. McVeigh's lawyers concede that he
does not have new evidence that would prove him innocent. They want to
proceed under a rule in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that allows
a party to a civil proceeding to obtain relief from a final judgment if
it was obtained by fraud, misrepresentation or other misconduct of an
adverse party.
Mr. McVeigh needs a stay, his lawyers contended, because "the government
has not yet told the truth about why the documents produced since May 9,
2001, were withheld from discovery, or why more documents are still
being withheld from discovery notwithstanding their representations that
all documents have been turned over."
"We are certain that if given an opportunity by Judge Matsch, we will
prove that there are still critical documents about this investigation
being withheld by the F.B.I.," Mr. Burr said today. "Some of those
documents may well be being kept in other case files."
Mr. Burr cited the example of Charles Farley, a witness he did not
identify by name today, in the trial of Terry L. Nichols, Mr. McVeigh's
co- defendant. Mr. Farley testified to seeing a Ryder truck and other
vehicles, including one carrying bags of fertilizer of the type used to
make the bomb, at a Kansas state park the day before the bombing. That
testimony, Mr. Burr contended, made some jurors unwilling to impose the
death penalty on Mr. Nichols because they believed others unknown were
also involved.
"We are confident," Mr. Burr said, "that if the evidence comes out as we
believe it is there, that there will be some credible evidence that
other people were involved, and it could have had the same kind of
impact on Tim McVeigh's trial as it had in Terry Nichols's trial."
Mr. Connelly said this afternoon: "The government in this case agreed to
go far beyond what the law requires by producing documents, which it was
not required to produce under the law. When it was determined that
additional documents had not been produced pursuant to the agreement
that disclosure was made."
The families of a number of bombing victims said they were not surprised
by today's request from Mr. McVeigh. Martha Ridley, whose daughter Kathy
Ridley died in the bombing, said she had been expecting it. "When all is
said and done, it isn't going to change anything," she said. "History
will record that he did get a fair trial."
Mr. McVeigh was convicted in 1997 of the 1995 Federal Building bombing
that killed 168 people. He confessed to the bombing in a book that
appeared in April. He also said in a letter to The Houston Chronicle
that the unknown suspect who has come to be known as John Doe No. 2 does
not exist.
But Mr. Nigh and Mr. Burr said here today that none of these statements
were made either at trial or in Mr. McVeigh's appeals. It is the court
record, they said, on which they would rely.
Mr. Ashcroft responded: "Based on overwhelming evidence and McVeigh's
own repeated admissions, we know that he is responsible for this crime,
and we will continue to pursue justice by seeking to carry out the
sentence that was determined by a jury."
At Mr. McVeigh's jury trial in Denver, Judge Matsch repeatedly asked
federal prosecutors whether they had given lawyers for Mr. McVeigh all
the exculpatory material required by federal law. They assured him that
they had gone beyond the legal requirements and had given defense
lawyers all interviews with law enforcement agents.
Prosecutors made the same assurances at the trial of Mr. Nichols, who is
now serving a life sentence for his role in the bombing. Mr. Nichols
filed an appeal with the Supreme Court as soon as the discovery of the
documents was made known.
Mr. Nigh and Mr. Burr spoke with reporters here his morning after
spending two hours with Mr. McVeigh. Mr. Nigh said it was not easy for
Mr. McVeigh to change his mind. "He was ready to die on May 16 of 2001,"
Mr. Nigh said. "He had previously indicated he preferred death to life
in prison without the possibility of parole."
"Mr. McVeigh has asked us to say that he understands and recognizes the
impact of his decision may have upon his family, the victims in the
Oklahoma City bombing case, the community of Terre Haute," Mr. Nigh
said. "His decision in no way stems from a desire to cause these people
any additional pain or trauma."
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