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U.S. to return to court in McVeigh case
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department plans to file papers in federal court as early as Thursday offering a description of the more than 3,100 pages of FBI documents recently discovered in the Oklahoma City bombing case, sources told CNN Wednesday. Sources said prosecutors will argue none of the documents would have affected the 1997 conviction of Timothy McVeigh -- facing execution now scheduled for June 11 -- and co-conspirator Terry Nichols, who is serving a life term and has gone to the Supreme Court with a new appeal based on the withholding of these documents. The prosecutors will admit a small number of the documents might have been useful to McVeigh's defense team, the sources said.
The FBI and Justice Department have publicly played down the importance of these documents, which have been under protective seal. This is the first detailed description of the documents being offered. The documents, which were made public just six days before McVeigh was originally scheduled to die by lethal injection in the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, prompting Attorney General John Ashcroft to delay his trip to the death chamber from May 16 to June 11. The sources said Justice Department attorneys continue to review the documents in Oklahoma City and could go before U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch in Denver "as early as tomorrow." Matsch is expected to ask for a reply from McVeigh's defense team after he receives the government's filing. McVeigh's attorneys have been discussing the FBI's blunder in not turning over the documents with McVeigh. If he agrees, they could seek a further delay in his execution to give them time to review the 700 documents. Sources said if that happens, the government is not likely to fight the request for a delay, believing that McVeigh's attorneys will not find anything in them that will reverse the verdict and death sentence in his case. |
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