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Attorney: McVeigh has shown compassion privately over bombing
TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (CNN) -- As Timothy McVeigh prepared for his Monday execution, one of his attorneys said Friday that the Oklahoma City bomber has shown compassion privately for "the pain that came out of this." Asked if his client has expressed remorse for the bombing, attorney Richard Burr told CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports" that "There were a number of times throughout my relationship with him where he expressed compassion for the pain that came out of this." (More on Burr's remarks) McVeigh Friday prepared himself "psychologically and emotionally" for his execution Burr said in an earlier interview. "Tim has had a struggle for a long time about what the end of his case would be. He felt all along that he would be put to death, and he vacillated between holding onto life and letting go of life over many months," Burr said. McVeigh, 33, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 a.m. (8 a.m. ET) Monday at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people. McVeigh would be the first federal prisoner executed since 1963 and the first ever to be killed by lethal injection. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overruled a lower court's order that directed the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to videotape the execution. (More on the ruling) The court earlier Friday temporarily stayed a lower court order to videotape the execution for possible use in another murder case. As many as 1,700 news media representatives may be on hand for the execution, but no more than 10 -- along with an equal number of survivors and victims relatives, government witnesses, five people chosen by McVeigh and possibly a spiritual adviser -- will actually witness the event.
Another 300 survivors of the bombing and relatives of victims may see it in Oklahoma City via closed circuit TV. After nearly two years in the Indiana prison's special confinement unit, the Army Gulf War veteran was bracing for his final few hours. "He is probably writing a number of letters to people," Burr said. "He maintains correspondence with many many people who care about him, and I know that he is probably doing whatever one does psychologically and emotionally to get ready for something like this." McVeigh could be moved to an isolation cell near the execution facility as early as Friday, but prison officials did not disclose precisely when that might happen. The prison goes into "lockdown" Sunday night, but not until inmates finish watching the National Basketball Association finals game that night. Prison officials initially planned to lock the prison down before the game but changed their plan. (More on the lockdown) Attorneys Rob Nigh and Nathan Chambers will be "on call" in Terre Haute all weekend for their client. On Sunday, the day before his date with the death chamber, McVeigh will meet with his lawyers "to make any preparations that they need to make with Tim," said attorney Christopher Tritico. "The problem that I have with this whole situation is that we're rushing to an execution, and giving someone the ultimate punishment, when there is a real and substantial concern about whether or not his trial was fair," Tritrico said. "If in the end it turns out like I believe, the FBI is guilty of misconduct here, and we've executed Mr. McVeigh, then the Constitution failed." But U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft told CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena that justice will have been carried out. "There won't be any doubt because the courts have acted very responsibly," he said. Noting the death toll exacted by McVeigh, Ashcroft said, "It's our responsibility and the responsibility of the justice system to come to a completion of the process. This completion will not restore the victims, but it will at least allow them to know that the justice process has worked and that it's complete." (More on Ashcroft interview) After the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his petition for a stay, McVeigh Thursday calmly instructed his attorneys to drop his final appeal so he can begin making final preparations to face execution. The appeals court said McVeigh's lawyers had "utterly failed to demonstrate grounds" for a stay and said it was in "complete agreement with McVeigh's candid concession" in his court filings that the withheld FBI materials would not have changed the guilty verdict. Burr said McVeigh has no intention of trying to stop the execution. "If Tim changed his mind, a petition could be filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, but that's not going to happen," he said. At 4 a.m. Monday (5 a.m. ET), about 300 survivors and relatives of victims will board buses and be driven to a jail facility near the Oklahoma City airport to view the execution via closed-circuit television. This weekend a government plane will fly another 10 Oklahomans selected by lottery from the pool of survivors and relatives of victims to Terre Haute to witness the execution in person. Counseling will be offered to the witnesses afterward. McVeigh will spend his final hours in an 8-foot by 10-foot holding cell, which contains a narrow bunk, toilet, desk and a small black-and-white television set. He will be watched by guards there until 6 a.m. (7 a.m. ET) Monday, when he will be taken to the death chamber. (More on the execution protocol) Schools and government offices in Terre Haute will be closed Monday. In addition to the city's 124 police officers who will be working 12-hour shifts beginning Sunday, 100 state police will be on hand. "We feel that we've got everything pretty much covered," Police Chief James Horrall said. Prison officials, who said McVeigh does not want to be photographed before his execution, have refused to allow on-camera interviews of McVeigh. |
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