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McVeigh re-evaluates his decision to be executed
WASHINGTON (AP) As Timothy McVeigh re-evaluates whether he
wants to be executed, lawmakers are considering hearings into the
FBI's failure to disclose evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing
case.
When McVeigh originally decided not to pursue further appeals,
he had no idea the FBI had withheld evidence, attorney Robert Nigh
said Sunday.
"In light of that, it's completely reasonable for him to
re-evaluate his position," Nigh told "Fox News Sunday." "The
facts of the case are now certainly at issue."
McVeigh "has indicated now that he is at least willing to take
a fresh look at things, hear our analysis of the facts contained
within the documents and our legal analysis of his options," Nigh
said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
The FBI's lapse has prompted members of Congress to urge
hearings into how it happened, and one Democrat wants President
Bush to appoint a blue-ribbon commission to review the FBI.
Defense attorney Nathan Chambers questioned whether the FBI has
disclosed all evidence. "Are we going to learn next week that
there are yet more documents?" Chambers said on ABC's "This
Week."
"There are a lot of questions that a lot of people have for the
FBI, and as we move forward in these next few days, that question
will be one that is answered," said Mindy Tucker, spokeswoman for
Attorney General John Ashcroft.
A former prosecutor in the case said she believed the foul-up
was unintentional and that the documents should not affect the
outcome of the case.
"He has confessed to the crime. The evidence during the trial
was absolutely overwhelming," Beth Wilkinson said on ABC. "I
believe it is very unlikely that there will be any information that
would be useful to Mr. McVeigh."
McVeigh and his lawyers are considering whether to seek a delay
in his execution, postponed until June 11 by Ashcroft because of
the evidence foul-up.
Ashcroft said he will not impose any further delays.
Just days before McVeigh was to be executed, the FBI disclosed
that some 3,135 investigation materials including interview
reports and physical evidence such as photographs, letters and
tapes were withheld grom McVeigh's lawyers.
McVeigh was to be executed for the April 19, 1995, bombing of
the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed
168 people, including 19 children.
The defense team has just begun reviewing the documents and Nigh
said he was not prepared to disclose what was in them. He did,
however, contend that "the fact of the production itself could
possibly change the legal outcome of the case."
McVeigh, who is in a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.,
had indicated he "did not wish to spend the rest of his life in an
8-by-12 cell," Nigh said. But that was after losing court appeals,
and before the new evidence now available to him, the lawyer said.
Asked about trying to put off the execution beyond June 11, Nigh
said: "It is his case, and he has to determine what he wants to
do."
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would ask Bush for a
special commission to examine the FBI from top to bottom.
Schumer cited a number of problems at the FBI, including the
February arrest of agent Robert Philip Hanssen, who is charged with
selling national secrets to Moscow, and a botched investigation
last year of former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.
"We've had mistake after mistake after mistake," he said on
CBS.
Ashcroft already has announced a separate Justice Department
investigation.
Bush said last week he awaited the findings of two
investigations into FBI procedures Ashcroft's and an earlier one
ordered after the Hanssen charges. A White House spokeswoman
pointed to those investigations when asked about Schumer's request.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized the FBI and its
director, Louis Freeh, who recently announced he will retire in
June.
"I think there is a management culture here that is at fault. I
call it a cowboy culture. It is kind of a culture that puts image
public relations and headlines ahead of the fundamentals," he
told ABC. "I don't think he (Freeh) has been willing to challenge
the management culture."
Congress must approve Freeh's eventual successor, and several
lawmakers said they hope President Bush will choose someone who can
reform the agency.
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