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June 6, 2001
Web posted at: 1:50 p.m. EDT (1750 GMT)

McVeigh's legal team arrives at U.S. District Court in Denver for Wednesday's hearing.

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A federal judge has denied convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's request to delay his execution.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch rejected the defense's contention that the government tried to perpetrate a fraud on the court by withholding more than 4,400 pages of FBI investigative documents in the case.

"Who has the intent to defraud here?" Matsch asked during Wednesday's hearing. "You have any specific witnesses in mind to support that? ... I don't see any of that in here."

On the suggestion others may have been involved in the bombing, the judge said, "If these things are true, Mr. McVeigh must know."

VIDEO CNN's Susan Candiotti profiles the judge who will be hearing the McVeigh appeal (June 5) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)  IN-DEPTH • Execution of Timothy McVeigh • Oklahoma City Bombing  MESSAGE BOARD McVeigh execution  DOCUMENTS Read documents in the McVeigh case (FindLaw) (PDF) McVeigh's reply to U.S. brief opposing stay McVeigh's petition for stay U.S. brief opposing stay of execution Order setting time to respond Supplement to petition for stay McVeigh's response to motion to clarify Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.  ALSO • U.S., Japan urged to end executions   LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

Government prosecutor Sean Connelly told the court the government was not trying to sabotage the case.

"The breakdown here is one at most of negligence and not intent," he said of the FBI document fiasco.

During the morning hearing, Matsch asked McVeigh attorney Rob Nigh if he was seeking solely to overturn the death sentence and not seeking a new trial to challenge the guilty verdict against the 33-year-old decorated Army Gulf War veteran.

"I would say so your honor," Nigh replied.

Matsch: "And not the conviction?"

Nigh: "That is my firm belief at this point."

The defense strategy is to suggest others may have been involved in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people -- the bloodiest terror attack ever on U.S. soil.

Prosecutors maintain that nothing in more than 4,400 pages of FBI documents recently turned over to the defense team casts any doubt on McVeigh's guilt or would mitigate his death sentence.

McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana on Monday.

The two sides have outlined their positions in motions filed with the court.

In the latest filing Tuesday afternoon, McVeigh attorneys charged the government was aware that other suspects were involved in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which left 168 people dead.

"Specifically, counsel believes that the government -- at least some FBI agents -- knew, not just that they surmised, through investigation, through informants, or both, that other people, in addition to Mr. McVeigh and Mr. Nichols, were responsible for the bombing," the filing said.

Terry Nichols was found guilty of helping McVeigh carry out the attack. The government has held that no others were involved.

"The defense believes that the government had a significant volume of such information, yet chose not to disclose critical portions of it to the defense, and chose not to present it at trial for fear of diminishing the responsibility that would be assigned to Mr. McVeigh during his trial, or for fear of shifting some of the responsibility to itself by revealing that federal informants had advised federal law enforcement officers of the bombing several days or weeks before it occurred," Tuesday's filing added.

The rebuttal challenged assertions made by federal prosecutors Monday that the documents the FBI failed to turn over to McVeigh's defense team did not contain information that would overturn McVeigh's guilty verdict or death sentence.

In its filing Monday, the Justice Department called McVeigh "undeniably guilty" and urged the court to reject his request for a stay of execution.

"There is no case in which the death sentence could be more appropriate than this one," asserted prosecutor Sean Connelly in the Justice Department's 27-page filing.

The government rejected the assertion by McVeigh lawyers that it had perpetrated a "fraud on the court" in its failure to turn over the investigative documents before the 1997 trial. The government, wrote Connelly, believed it had "scrupulously honored its generous discovery agreements" prior to trial.

The Justice Department said McVeigh had identified only nine new documents "totaling little more than 20 pages that he claims would have helped the defense."

The government dismissed the significance of those nine documents, saying "the same or similar information was disclosed prior to trial."