McVeigh says no to appeals

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JUNE 8. With an appeals court bluntly dismissing his petition, Timothy McVeigh, has decided to forego further avenues of appeal and will now be put to death by lethal injection on Monday in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said dismissively that the lawyers for McVeigh ``utterly failed to demonstrate substantial grounds'' why the Oklahoma City bomber should not be executed next week. McVeigh could have further petitioned the full Appeals Court or taken the matter to the United States Supreme Court. But the Gulf War veteran instructed his lawyers to drop all petition plans. McVeigh has also declined to ask the President, Mr. George W Bush, for clemency.

``Today's ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is a ruling in favour of justice...Timothy McVeigh is responsible for the brutal murder of 168 people, including 19 children, and he will now be brought to justice,'' the Attorney-General, Mr. John Ashcroft said in a statement. McVeigh was scheduled to be executed on May 16 but the discovery by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of some 4,000 pages of documents related to his trial gave a ray of hope to his attorneys. They hoped to prove that credible evidence of the involvement of another person was suppressed; and that such information could have had an impact on a jury which might not have handed McVeigh the penalty.

On Wednesday, the district judge in Denver, Colorado, denied the motion for delay in execution; and the Appeals Court upheld the ruling the following day. The 33-year-old McVeigh will be the first federal prisoner to be executed since 1963. Legal experts felt that McVeigh sealed his fate several months ago by first dropping all his appeals avenues; and then admitting in a book interview that he alone bombed the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city in April 1995. McVeigh said the bombing was to avenge the raids by federal agents in Waco, Texas and in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

Reports from Terre Haute say preparations are under way for the execution which is set for Monday morning. That morning, McVeigh will take his final short drive from the death row chambers to the execution chamber. According to the warden of the federal facility, although McVeigh has had several months to think about his last meal and order it, the final request has not yet come through.

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Section  : International
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