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Officials offer script of McVeigh's final hours

From Terry Frieden
CNN Washington Bureau

CHAT TRANSCRIPT Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck chat about their book, "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing."  VIDEO The mother of one bombing victim says she needs to see McVeigh's execution. CNN's Susan Candiotti talks with her Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) In new book, Timothy McVeigh expresses no remorse. CNN's Susan Candiotti reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)  RESOURCES Newsmaker Profiles: Timothy McVeigh Read Timothy McVeigh's agreement with the Coroner of Vigo County, Indiana - March 9, 2001 (FindLaw) (PDF format)* *Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.  MESSAGE BOARD Death penalty

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The final hours of Timothy McVeigh will be carefully scripted, Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons officials said Thursday. The only thing that could change the plan would be if McVeigh asks, and a judge agrees, to restart the appeal process.

McVeigh has been sentenced to die for the April 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building that killed 168 people, including 19 children, in the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Officials gave this timetable for the day of the execution, May 16, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana:

At 5 a.m. local time, McVeigh, 23 days past his 33rd birthday, will have his final communication with his attorney. If at this point he changes his mind and decides to restart the appeal process he has voluntarily halted, his attorney will have two hours to get a court order. Otherwise, the execution will proceed.

At 6 a.m., McVeigh, in leg irons, will be moved from the holding cell of the federal prison to the execution chamber.

The process of getting him into the room, unchained, strapped to the execution table and connected to intravenous tubes through which the lethal doses will be given will take up to a half-hour.

McVeigh then will lie on the table, strapped in position, for 30 to 45 minutes before the curtains are opened at 7 a.m., showing the table and McVeigh to people in the observation room.

When the curtains open, the closed-circuit telecast will begin.

McVeigh will be given an opportunity to make a brief final statement. Officials said he would be cut short if he goes too long, but they would not say precisely what would be considered too long.

The only two people in the room with McVeigh will be Prison Warden Harley Lappin and U.S. Marshal Frank Anderson.

The executioner will be in a room out of the view of the witnesses. The process of administering the lethal drugs through the intravenous tubes may be activated in one of three ways: by a machine, by a prison employee, or by a contract employee. The public will not be told which method is used.

The three drugs to be used are, first, sodium pentathol, which causes sleep; then pancuronium bromide, which stops respiration; and finally, potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Death will occur in less than 10 minutes, probably within seven, officials said.

Other details, such as how many tubes will be used and where they will be attached, will not be disclosed in order to "maintain privacy and the solemnity of the occasion," according to prison officials.

McVeigh's death will be the first federal execution by lethal injection. All previous federal executions -- the last of which was in 1963 -- were by electrocution, gas, or hanging.

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

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