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Updated May 30, 2001, 11:40 a.m. ET
McVeigh and attorneys to meet Thursday to discuss appeal

DENVER (AP) — Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh will meet with lawyers this week and is likely to file a request to block his execution, his attorneys said Wednesday.

The request would be based on about 4,000 documents the FBI turned over to McVeigh's attorneys earlier this month, just days before he had been scheduled to be executed for carrying out the 1995 blast that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

At his office in Tulsa, Okla., Rob Nigh said he plans to meet with McVeigh on Thursday at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., and will seek his approval on a request to block the execution.

Nigh declined to comment on the contents of the documents he would show McVeigh.

"You can certainly anticipate it will request a stay," he said.

Nathan Chambers, McVeigh's Denver-based attorney, said McVeigh believes the information is worthy of judicial review.

"If he gives us permission to file something, we'll probably file something tomorrow," he said Wednesday. "We're in the process of drafting the paperwork."

McVeigh told a federal judge in December that he would not appeal his death sentence.

In early May, the FBI gave McVeigh's attorneys thousands of documents that it said had accidentally not been turned over to the defense. Attorney General John Ashcroft then postponed McVeigh's execution from May 16 to June 11.

Meanwhile, a former FBI agent who worked on the case reportedly told a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year that the FBI ignored evidence that might have helped the defense.

Ricardo Ojeda, a former special agent in Oklahoma City, wrote Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in March 2000, complaining of corruption and discrimination in the FBI's field office, according to CBS' "60 Minutes II."

"I am also aware of instances in other cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing, where exculpatory evidence was ignored and not documented. Including exculpatory information I personally gathered from leads assigned me in the case," Ojeda wrote.

Nigh said Ojeda's allegations should have an impact on the case.

"That information should, at minimum, change the course of this case in the near future," Nigh said on "60 Minutes II."

The FBI said Ojeda's records were turned over to McVeigh's lawyers, but that none of his investigation was used at trial. Ojeda said he was fired from the FBI after testifying in a discrimination hearing against FBI management.

"Because he is no longer on the rolls, former Agent Ojeda would not know that his concerns are unfounded," FBI Deputy Director Tom Pickard said in a statement. "Thousands of agents worked on this case but, in the end, most did not have their work presented at trial."

Ojeda could not be reached by The Associated Press; there was no answer at his home in Oklahoma, and a message left at his wife's business was not returned.

 
Special report: Execution of an American Terrorist
 
  • Profile of a mass murderer: Who is Tim McVeigh?

  • A video tour of the execution chamber

  • Interactive map of the execution facility

  • Full execution coverage
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  • Interactive road map
  • Full journey coverage
  • View photo gallery
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  • Listen to audio of the explosion, recorded from across the street

  • Diagram of Alfred P. Murrah building and vicinity

  • The Crime Library: Full story of the bombing

  • Full bombing coverage
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  • Victims remembered with 168 seconds of silence

  • Profiles of all 168 victims
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  • Video report on the motives behind McVeigh's actions.

  • Watch more video
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  • Read McVeigh's petition for a stay of execution

  • Read prosecutors' brief opposing stay

  • More documents
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  • Transcript of chat with Court TV's Tim Sullivan, who discusses the execution of Timothy McVeigh

  • Transcript of chat with Paul Heath, a bombing survivor, who discusses what it was like that day and his recovery

  • Full archive of chats
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