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FBI blunder postpones McVeigh execution
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US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced on Friday he was postponing the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in order to give McVeigh's lawyers an opportunity to review newly-discovered evidence.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said he was reluctantly delaying McVeigh's death until June 11 in order to give the bomber's defense team a chance to review FBI documents which should have been given to them prior to his 1997 trial.
Insisting that the documents in no way exonerated the 33-year-old former Gulf War veteran, Ashcroft said the delay was nevertheless imperative in order for justice to be seen to be done.
"Timothy McVeigh, by his own admission, is guilty of an act of terrorism that stole life from 168 innocent Americans, and these documents do not contradict the jury's verdict in the case," he told a news conference.
"But if any questions or doubts remain about this case, it would cast a permanent cloud over justice, diminishing its value and questioning its integrity."
McVeigh was scheduled to die on May 16, for blowing up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in the United States' worst act of terrorism ever.
But it emerged last Thursday that thousands of pages of evidence from FBI agents during the investigation were not handed to McVeigh's defense team as agreed under a 1996 disclosure agreement with his defense team.
The documents contain witness testimony about a man reportedly seen with McVeigh in the days before the bombing, and specifically when he rented the infamous Ryder truck which transported the bomb, said Richard Burr, a lawyer advising McVeigh's attorneys.
The testimony again raises the question of whether McVeigh was aided only by his former army buddy Terry Nichols, who was given a life sentence for his role in the attack, or whether he was the front man for a larger conspiracy.
McVeigh's attorney Rob Nigh, who visited him on Friday at the maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, said the eleventh-hour reprieve was traumatic for his client.
McVeigh had said his good-byes to friends and family and was "distressed that he has had to put these people that he cares about through this process and may only have to put them through it again."
And US advocacy group The Justice Project called the developments "astonishing".
"There can be no better evidence of the need to address flaws in our nation's death penalty system than this," the group said.
The news was greeted with dismay by many of the families of the victims in Oklahoma City.
"It's very frustrating. It's an emotional roller-coaster," said Tom Kight, 62, the stepfather of Frankie Merrill, 23, who died in the blast leaving behind a two-year-old daughter.
Stan Kok, whose wife Aren Almon-Kok lost her one-year-old daughter Baylee in the blast said the wait was agonizing.
"We spent a lot of time preparing ourselves mentally for this," said Kok.
"And who knows, at the end of this 30 days, there might be another 30 days and another 30 days. There's just no way to know."
Others like Kathleen Treanor, who lost her four-year-old daughter Ashley Eckles, and both her husband's parents in the attack, directed their fury at the FBI.
"This is supposed to be our elite FBI unit. These are supposed to be the best of the best. How could this have happened?"
Meanwhile in Washington, Ashcroft expressed his regret for the blunder and revealed he had ordered a Justice Department investigation of how it came about.
President George W Bush admitted he was "concerned" about the bungle, but the man who oversaw 152 executions in his former capacity as Governor of Texas, reiterated his confidence in the US justice system.
"I think by-and-large the system is healthy, and I think today proved why it is healthy."
According to a poll released on Saturday, most Americans still believe McVeigh should be put to death despite the FBI's failure to hand over evidence to his lawyers before the 1997 trial.(SD-Agencies)
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