PENDLETON, N.Y. (AP) —The father of condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh says he will honor his son's request and stay away from his execution May 16.

"He sent me a letter about his execution and in it Tim said he didn't want me there," Bill McVeigh told The Buffalo News in its Saturday editions, adding that no other family members will attend.

Timothy McVeigh, 32, is scheduled to die on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind. for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people including 19 children.

McVeigh's father told the newspaper he had watched ABC's "PrimeTime Thursday", which focused on a new book in which his son admits to the bombing.

"I laid awake half the night," he said.

In the book, titled "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing," a remoresless McVeigh calls the children killed in the bombing "collateral damage."

Details in the book marked the first time McVeigh has publicly and explicitly admitted to the crime.

"He's my son and I love him, but what he did was absolutely wrong, and I have no idea how anyone could do it," the elder McVeigh said.

"It's on my mind 95 percent of the time," he said. "When I'm busy, I'm not thinking about it. I try to keep going. I can't sit home and start thinking."

Timothy McVeigh, convicted of federal murder charges, has waived appeals and asked a federal judge to set his execution date. If the execution by injection takes place, he will be the first federal inmate put to death since 1963.