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Judge grants McVeigh's request to speed up execution

If an date is set, McVeigh's could be the first federal execution in more than 35 years

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) - A federal court judge granted Thursday condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's request to wave his right to additional appeals and expedite his execution.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch will set an execution date if he has received no further appeals by January 11.

McVeigh was convicted of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people.

McVeigh did not explain his rationale for requesting the expedited execution and the judge did not ask for one. Matsch, who also presided over McVeigh's trial, asked the Gulf War veteran if he had been coerced into his decision and McVeigh replied that he had not.

Asked if he was on medication, McVeigh, 32, said that he had been taking heartburn medication but had not had any in the last 24 hours.

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McVeigh conversed with the judge via a closed-circuit television hookup from the federal maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he is on death row.

McVeigh was convicted of murder for the April 19, 1995 bomb attack on the Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people.

One of McVeigh's attorneys, Nathan Chambers, was with him in Terre Haute. His other lawyer, Dennis Hartley, was in the Denver courtroom

The law says McVeigh's decision had to have been made in "a knowing, intelligent waiver." Although McVeigh decided, against his lawyers' advice, to stop the appeals process, Hartley said it's within his client's legal rights to do so.

"If a person can pick the time and place and manner of death then they can be more prepared for it. So I don't see that as something that's necessarily a bad thing," Hartley told CNN.

"I don't know why he wants to make this decision, nor could I tell you if I did know. But it could be that he's just tired, tired of the system and the lockdown is fairly restrictive. Well it's not fairly restrictive, it's absolutely restrictive."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Connelly said McVeigh did not have "many more options for appeal." But both Hartley and Connelly do not expect Matsch to ask McVeigh "why" he has decided to waive the right to further appeals. Both sides said the judge will be carefully looking and listening during McVeigh's answers for signs of competency.

Hartley said he did not know of any reason to question McVeigh's ability to make the request he is making.

"Without giving you a professional opinion from the medical field, I don't think there's anything I've seen that Mr. McVeigh is not competent to make this decision," said Hartley.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 340 federal executions in U.S. history. The last one was in 1963, when Victor Fequer was hanged in Iowa for kidnapping.

If executed next spring, McVeigh would be the first federal execution in more than 35 years. Federal death row inmate Juan Garza was scheduled to die December 12 but President Clinton has stayed that execution for at least six months.

Oklahoma City bombing victims remembered, 5 years later
April 19, 2000
McVeigh: Gulf War killings led him on path to disillusionment
March 13, 2000
Agent who led arrest of McVeigh tries to put human face on FBI
April 16, 1999
Grand jury finds McVeigh, Nichols acted alone in Oklahoma bombing
December 30, 1998
Oklahoma City bombing trial
March 1997
Timothy McVeigh and the death penalty
December 1996
McVeigh, Nichols plead not guilty in bombing
August 13, 1996

Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Oklahoma State Government
Death Penalty Information Center
US Federal Bureau of Prisons

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