ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 16, 2001

McVeigh execution set for May 16: Convicted Oklahoma City bomber to die by lethal injection

DENVER, Jan. 16 - Federal officials set a May 16 execution date Tuesday for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of murder and conspiracy for the bombing that killed 168 people in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

THE FEDERAL BUREAU of Prisons issued a news release saying it had notified McVeigh of the decision.

McVeigh, 32, who is on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., has said he doesn't want any more appeals, although he has reserved the right to seek executive clemency.

He allowed a deadline for resuming his appeals to expire Thursday and prison officials started planning his lethal injection.

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Dan Dunne said officials would try to meet the needs of the victims' relatives and survivors of the blast in planning the execution.

The April 19, 1995, bombing was the worst act of terrorism ever committed on U.S. soil. Prosecutors said McVeigh, a decorated Gulf War veteran, was motivated by hatred of the U.S. government and a desire for revenge for the April 19, 1993, deaths of about 80 people in the siege at the compound of the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas.

The federal government has not put a prisoner to death since March 15, 1963, when it executed Victor Feguer for murder and kidnapping. There is one federal execution date set between now and May 16, that of David Paul Hammer, but he is pursuing appeals. He scheduled to die by injection on Feb. 21 for strangling his cellmate.

McVeigh's attorney, Nathan Chambers, said McVeigh had made no decision on whether to seek clemency.

"I don't know yet," he said. "That's something Mr. McVeigh has under consideration."

He said McVeigh has 30 days to file a petition for clemency with the Justice Department's Office of Pardon Attorney, which would make a recommendation to the president. George W. Bush, who will be inaugurated Saturday, is a firm death penalty supporter.

Betty Robins, who was working in the building at the time of the bombing, said the execution date was fine with her.

"My feeling are as long as it is not the anniversary date, it will be fine," she said from the memorial at the bombing site, where she works as a volunteer. "Since the anniversary will be past almost a month it will be fine.

"He can be forgiven but he must pay restitution, and his death will be that restitution. But you can never pay for that kind of crime. But this is close as it can come. I just wish he would tell people why before he dies and what he wanted to accomplish."

Vicki Hamm, who also was in the federal building at the time of the blast, noted that the bombing was on a Wednesday and the execution date is a Wednesday.

"Even though I was expecting it, I still feel like someone is hitting me in the stomach," she said. "I think of my friends. I think of the memorial and I see healing in that and the good things that will come from that."

Oklahoma City Attorney Karen Howick said she is pursuing an effort to get a closed circuit television hookup for families to watch the execution.

Howick represented families in getting closed circuit TV of McVeigh's trial.

McVeigh's father, retired Pendleton, N.Y., factory worker William McVeigh, has said that his son explained his decision to the family. He told The Buffalo News: "I guess his feeling is, he knows he's going to die - it might as well be sooner than later."

Others speculated McVeigh wants to become a martyr for anti-government causes, or wants to mock the government with his petition for clemency, knowing how long it has been since federal authorities put anyone to death.

The bombing memorial, dedicated last year on the fifth anniversary, features 168 stone and bronze chairs representing the victims, a reflecting pool, tiles bearing messages honoring the 19 children killed, and symbolic "Gates of Time." An elm tree that survived the blast represents the survivors.